Written Notes
A written note can also have a note value, a code that determines the note's relative duration. In order of halving duration, we have: double note (breve); whole note (semibreve); half note (minim); quarter note (crotchet); eighth note (quaver); sixteenth note (semiquaver). Smaller still are the thirty-second note (demisemiquaver), sixty-fourth note (hemidemisemiquaver), and hundred twenty-eighth note (semihemidemisemiquaver).
When notes are written out in a score, each note is assigned a specific vertical position on a staff position (a line or a space) on the staff, as determined by the clef. Each line or space is assigned a note name. These names are memorized by musicians and allow them to know at a glance the proper pitch to play on their instruments for each note-head marked on the page.
The staff above shows the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C listen and then in reverse order, with no key signature or accidentals.
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Famous quotes containing the words written and/or notes:
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—J. David Bolter (b. 1951)
“Ceremony and ritual spring from our heart of hearts: those who govern us know it well, for they would sooner deny us bread than dare alter the observance of tradition.”
—F. Gonzalez-Crussi, Mexican professor of pathology, author. On Embalming, Notes of an Anatomist (1985)