music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...

, a thirty-second note (American) or demisemiquaver (British) 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 ...

played for of the duration of a

whole note A whole note (American) or semibreve (British) in musical notation is a single note equivalent to or lasting as long as two half notes or four quarter notes. Description The whole note or semibreve has a note head in the shape of a hollow o ...

(or ''semibreve''). It lasts half as long as a

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 dura ...

(or ''semiquaver'') and twice as long as a sixty-fourth (or ''hemidemisemiquaver''). Thirty-second notes are notated with an oval, filled-in

note head In music, a notehead is the part of a note, usually elliptical in shape, whose placement on the staff indicates the pitch, to which modifications are made that indicate duration. Noteheads may be the same shape but colored completely bl ...

and a straight

note stem In musical notation, stems are the, "thin, vertical lines that are directly connected to the otehead." Stems may point up or down. Different-pointing stems indicate the voice for polyphonic music written on the same staff. Within one voice, t ...

with three flags or beams. A single thirty-second note is always stemmed with flags, while two or more are usually beamed in groups.Gerou, Tom (1996). ''Essential Dictionary of Music Notation'', p.211. Alfred. As with all notes with stems, thirty-second notes are drawn with stems to the right of the notehead, extending up, when they are below the middle line of the

musical staff In Western musical notation, the staff (US and UK)"staff" in the Collin ...

. When they are on or above the middle line, they are drawn with stems on the left of the note head, extending down. Flags are always on the right side of the stem, and curve to the right. On stems extending up, the flags start at the top and curve down; for downward extending stems, the flags start at the bottom of the stem and curve up. When multiple thirty-second notes or

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 play ...

s (or

sixteenth The 16th century begins with the Julian calendar, Julian year 1501 (Roman numerals, MDI) and ends with either the Julian or the Gregorian calendar, Gregorian year 1600 (Roman numerals, MDC) (depending on the reckoning used; the Gregorian calendar ...

s, etc.) are next to each other, the flags may be connected with a

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 ...

. Similar rules apply to smaller divisions such as

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. A related symbol is the thirty-second rest or demisemiquaver rest (shown to the right), which denotes a silence for the same duration as a thirty-second note.

References

Note values fr:double croche {{Music-theory-stub

See also

References