![Geometrische reihe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/46/Geometrische_reihe.svg)
In Western
musical notation, a dotted note is a
note
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened version ...
with a small dot written after it. In modern practice, the first dot increases the
duration
Duration may refer to:
* The amount of time elapsed between two events
* Duration (music) – an amount of time or a particular time interval, often cited as one of the fundamental aspects of music
* Duration (philosophy) – a theory of time and ...
of the basic note by half (the original note with an extra
beam
Beam may refer to:
Streams of particles or energy
*Light beam, or beam of light, a directional projection of light energy
**Laser beam
*Particle beam, a stream of charged or neutral particles
**Charged particle beam, a spatially localized grou ...
) of its original
value
Value or values may refer to:
Ethics and social
* Value (ethics) wherein said concept may be construed as treating actions themselves as abstract objects, associating value to them
** Values (Western philosophy) expands the notion of value beyo ...
. This means that a dotted note is equivalent to writing the basic note
tied to a note of half the value – for instance, a dotted
half note
''Half Note'' is a live album by saxophonist Clifford Jordan which was recorded in 1974 and first released on the SteepleChase label in 1985. is equivalent to a half note tied to a
quarter note
A quarter note (American) or crotchet ( ) (British) is a musical note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem. The stem ...
. Subsequent dots add progressively halved value, as shown in the example to the right.
Though theoretically possible, a note with more than three dots is highly uncommon; only quadruple dots have been attested.
If the original note is considered as being of length 1, then a quintuple dot would only be 1/32 longer than the quadruple dotted note. The difficulty may be seen by comparing dotted notation to
tied notation: a quarter note () is equivalent to 2 tied
eighth note
180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest.
180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together.
An eighth note (American) or a quaver ( British) is a musical note pla ...
s (), a dotted quarter = 3 tied eighth notes, double dotted = 7 tied
sixteenth note
Figure 1. A 16th note with stem facing up, a 16th note with stem facing down, and a 16th rest.
Figure 2. Four 16th notes beamed together.
In music, a 1/16, sixteenth note (American) or semiquaver ( British) is a note played for half the du ...
s (), triple dotted = 15 tied
thirty-second note
In music, a thirty-second note (American) or demisemiquaver (British) is a note played for of the duration of a whole note (or ''semibreve''). It lasts half as long as a sixteenth note (or ''semiquaver'') and twice as long as a sixty-fourt ...
s (), and quadruple dotted = 31 tied
sixty-fourth note
In music notation, a sixty-fourth note (American), or hemidemisemiquaver or semidemisemiquaver (British), sometimes called a half-thirty-second note, is a note played for half the duration of a thirty-second note (or demisemiquaver), hence the name ...
s (). Although shorter notes do occur, sixty-fourth notes are considered the shortest practical duration found in musical notation.
:
The use of a dot for
augmentation of a note dates back at least to the 10th century, although the exact amount of augmentation is disputed; see
Neume
A neume (; sometimes spelled neum) is the basic element of Western and Eastern systems of musical notation prior to the invention of five-line staff notation.
The earliest neumes were inflective marks that indicated the general shape but not nec ...
.
A rhythm using longer notes alternating with shorter notes (whether notated with dots or not) is sometimes called a dotted rhythm. Historical examples of music performance styles using dotted rhythms include
notes inégales
In music, ''notes inégales'' is a performance practice, mainly from the Baroque and Classical music eras, in which some notes with equal written time values are performed with unequal durations, usually as alternating long and short. The pra ...
and
swing. The precise performance of dotted rhythms can be a complex issue. Even in notation that includes dots, their performed values may be longer than the dot mathematically indicates, a practice known as over-dotting.
Notation
If the note to be dotted is on a space, the dot also goes on the space, while if the note is on a line, the dot goes on the space above (this also goes for notes on ledger lines).
:
The placement of dots gets more complicated for adjacent-note chords and for lower voices, as shown below.
:
The dots on dotted notes, which are located to the right of the note, should not be confused with the dots for
staccato articulation, which are located above or below the note.
Theoretically, any note value can be dotted, as can
rest
Rest or REST may refer to:
Relief from activity
* Sleep
** Bed rest
* Kneeling
* Lying (position)
* Sitting
* Squatting position
Structural support
* Structural support
** Rest (cue sports)
** Armrest
** Headrest
** Footrest
Arts and enter ...
s of any value. If the rest is in its normal position, dots are always placed in third staff space from the bottom, as shown in the example below.
:
Dots can be used across
barlines
In musical notation, a bar (or measure) is a segment of time corresponding to a specific number of beats in which each beat is represented by a particular note value and the boundaries of the bar are indicated by vertical bar lines. Dividing mu ...
, such as in
H. C. Robbins Landon
Howard Chandler Robbins Landon (March 6, 1926November 20, 2009) was an American musicologist, journalist, historian and broadcaster, best known for his work in rediscovering the huge body of neglected music by Haydn and in correcting misunderstand ...
's edition of
Joseph Haydn's
Symphony No. 70 in D major, but most writers today regard this usage as obsolete and recommend using a tie across the barline instead.
Double dotting
A double-dotted note is a note with two small dots written after it. Its duration is times its basic
note value
In music notation, a note value indicates the relative duration of a note, using the texture or shape of the '' notehead'', the presence or absence of a ''stem'', and the presence or absence of ''flags/ beams/hooks/tails''. Unmodified note valu ...
. The double-dotted note is used less frequently than the dotted note. Typically, as in the example to the right, it is followed by a note whose duration is one-quarter the length of the basic note value, completing the next higher note value. Before the mid-18th century, double dots were not used. Until then, in some circumstances, single dots could mean double dots.
In a
French overture
The French overture is a musical form widely used in the Baroque period. Its basic formal division is into two parts, which are usually enclosed by double bars and repeat signs. They are complementary in style (slow in dotted rhythms and fast in ...
(and sometimes other
Baroque music), notes written as dotted notes are often interpreted to mean double-dotted notes, and the following note is commensurately shortened; see
Historically informed performance.
Triple dotting
A triple-dotted note is a note with three dots written after it; its duration is times its basic note value. Use of a triple-dotted note value is not common in the Baroque and Classical periods, but quite common in the music of
Richard Wagner and
Anton Bruckner, especially in their brass parts.
An example of the use of double- and triple-dotted notes is in
Frédéric Chopin's
Prelude in G major for piano, Op. 28, No. 3. The piece, in
common time
The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note val ...
(), contains running
semiquavers
Figure 1. A 16th note with stem facing up, a 16th note with stem facing down, and a 16th rest.
Figure 2. Four 16th notes beamed together.
In music, a 1/16, sixteenth note (American) or semiquaver (British) is a note played for half the dura ...
(sixteenth notes) in the left hand. Several times during the piece Chopin asks for the right hand to play a triple-dotted
minim (half note), lasting 15 semiquavers, simultaneously with the first left-hand semiquaver, then one semiquaver simultaneously with the 16th left-hand semiquaver.
Other contexts
The pseudonym "Dotted Crotchet" was used by the jounalist and editor of ''
The Musical Times
''The Musical Times'' is an academic journal of classical music edited and produced in the United Kingdom and currently the oldest such journal still being published in the country.
It was originally created by Joseph Mainzer in 1842 as ''Mainzer ...
'', Frederick George Edwards in that journal. Under this name he wrote "educationally suggestive interviews with musical celebrities", as well as a many articles about "cathedrals, churches, and educational institutions".
See also
*
Tuplet
In music, a tuplet (also irrational rhythm or groupings, artificial division or groupings, abnormal divisions, irregular rhythm, gruppetto, extra-metric groupings, or, rarely, contrametric rhythm) is "any rhythm that involves dividing the beat ...
Notes and references
Notes
References
Sources
*
External links
*
"Learn to Read Drum Music – Part 6 – Dotted Notes Explained" thenewdrummer.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dotted Note
Note values