What a dot does
A dot placed after a note head adds half of that note’s value to it. A minim is two beats, so a dotted minim is three. A crotchet is one beat, so a dotted crotchet is one and a half. A quaver is half a beat, so a dotted quaver is three quarters of a beat. The rule is exact, not approximate: a dotted note is one and a half times the plain note, every time.
- A dot after a note adds half its value: a dotted minim is three beats, a dotted crotchet one and a half, a dotted quaver three quarters of a beat.
- A double dot adds half and then a quarter more: a double-dotted crotchet is one and three-quarter beats.
- A tie joins two adjacent notes of the same pitch into one held note; the second note is not played again.
- A curved line over notes of different pitches is a slur, not a tie, and every note under it is played.
Dots apply to rests too: a dotted crotchet rest is one and a half beats of silence. And the position of the dot matters. A dot to the right of the note head is duration. A dot above or below the note head is staccato, an articulation mark meaning short and detached, and it takes length away rather than adding it. When the note head sits on a line, the duration dot is printed in the space just above, which still counts as “after”.
In American terms, for readers who learned that way: a dotted half note is three beats, a dotted quarter note is one and a half, a dotted eighth note is three quarters. The arithmetic is identical; only the names change.
Double dots
A second dot adds half of what the first dot added. So a double-dotted note is its plain value, plus a half, plus a quarter: one and three-quarters of the original. A double-dotted minim is two plus one plus a half, three and a half beats. A double-dotted crotchet is one plus a half plus a quarter, one and three-quarter beats, which is seven semiquavers. It is almost always followed by a single semiquaver that completes the second beat.
You meet double dots in Baroque overtures and in march-like passages, where the composer wants a sharper snap than a single dot gives. If you see a double-dotted crotchet and a semiquaver, count the beat in four and place the short note on the last quarter of the second beat: “1 e and a 2 e and a”. Triple dots exist and are rare enough to ignore until you meet one.
Ties
A tie is a small curved line joining the heads of two adjacent notes of the same pitch. The two notes become one: you play the first and hold it for the combined length, and you do not play the second. A crotchet tied to a quaver is one sound lasting one and a half beats; a minim tied to a crotchet is three beats; a semibreve tied to a semibreve is eight.
Ties exist for two reasons. The first is the barline: a single note cannot cross one, so a note that starts at the end of one bar and finishes in the next is written as two notes tied together. The second is values that no single note can show. There is no note worth exactly five quavers, so it is written as a minim tied to a quaver. And ties are often used instead of dots when the dotted version would hide the beat: a crotchet tied to a quaver and a dotted crotchet are the same length, and engravers choose whichever makes the beats easier to see.
Tie or slur?
A slur is the same curved line drawn over two or more notes of different pitches, and it means play them smoothly joined, in one bow, one breath or one hand movement. Every note under a slur is played. A tie and a slur use the same mark, so the mark cannot tell you which is which; the pitches can. Same pitch, two notes side by side, line from note head to note head: tie. Different pitches, or a line arching over a whole group: slur.
The trap is a slur over a group that happens to start and end on the same note, or a slur containing two repeated notes. If the curve touches only the two same-pitch note heads, it is a tie. If it arches over other notes as well, it is a slur and the repeated note is played again. When a tie and a slur coincide, engravers draw both: a short tie between the two note heads inside a longer slur.
The dotted-quaver-semiquaver rhythm
The commonest dotted rhythm is a dotted quaver followed by a semiquaver: three quarters of a beat and then one quarter, filling one crotchet beat with a long-short pattern. Count the beat in four, “1 e and a”. The dotted quaver sounds on “1” and holds through “e” and “and”; the semiquaver falls on “a”, the last quarter of the beat, and leads into the next beat.
The thing to guard against is softening it. A swung or triplet rhythm puts the short note two thirds of the way through the beat; a dotted rhythm puts it three quarters of the way through. They feel different: the triplet lilts, the dotted rhythm snaps. If your dotted quavers are coming out as a lazy lilt, subdivide aloud in four and make the short note land on “a”, not “and”. The triplets guide covers the other side of that line.
Larger dotted rhythms are counted the same way with a coarser subdivision. A dotted crotchet followed by a quaver in 4/4 is “1 (2) and”: the long note on 1, held through 2, and the quaver on the “and” of 2. In 6/8, where the quaver is the counting unit, a dotted crotchet is three quavers, one of the two big beats in the bar; the 6/8 guide goes through that.
A worked example
Picture a bar of 4/4 with three notes: a dotted crotchet, a quaver, and a minim. The dotted crotchet is one and a half beats, the quaver half a beat, the minim two. One and a half plus a half plus two is four, so the bar adds up. Counted with quaver subdivisions it is: dotted crotchet on “1”, held through “and” and “2”; quaver on the “and” of 2; minim on “3”, held through “4 and”.
Now the minim has a tie to a crotchet on the first beat of the next bar, both on the same G. The G starts on beat 3 and is held for three beats, through beat 1 of the next bar; nothing is played on that beat 1, and the next new note comes on beat 2. Read it again without noticing the tie and you will strike the G twice, and the second bar will feel like it has an extra note. Read it as a slur and you will strike it twice with a legato shape, which is the same wrong note with better manners.
The misreads
The first misread is treating the dot as “a bit longer”. It is exactly half again. A dotted crotchet held for two beats, or for one and a quarter, makes the bar fail to add up and the next note come early or late. Count the subdivisions until the length is in your body.
The second is re-striking a tied note. The second note of a tie is a continuation, not an attack. On piano, keep the key down; on a wind instrument, do not tongue; on a string, do not change bow direction unless the bowing demands it. If the two notes are on the same pitch and joined head to head, hold.
The third is reading a slur as a tie, or a tie as a slur, which the section above covers. Check pitches before you decide.
The fourth is the lilt: playing dotted-quaver-semiquaver as a triplet, or the reverse. Subdivide in four for dots, in three for triplets, and the two rhythms stop blurring into each other.
A two-minute drill
- Clap the snap, forty-five secondsCount “1 e and a, 2 e and a” aloud at a walking pace, and clap on “1” and “a” only. That is dotted quaver, semiquaver. Then clap on “1” and “and” only: two even quavers. Alternate bars of each until the difference is obvious.
- Clap the long one, forty-five secondsCount “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and” and clap on “1”, the “and” of 2, and “3”. That is dotted crotchet, quaver, minim, the bar from the worked example.
- Find three ties and three slurs, thirty secondsOpen any piece and point at six curved lines. Say “tie” or “slur” for each, by the pitches. Then photograph one bar with a tie and hear it (below): you should hear one note, not two.
Hear the exact length
Rhythm is the one thing a page cannot show you directly; it can only tell you the arithmetic, and your ear has to check the result. Sheetly is built for one job: turning the printed music you already own into something you can hear, ask about and practise, on an iPhone or iPad. Photograph the bar, press play, and the dotted crotchet lasts exactly one and a half beats, the tied G is one held sound, and the dotted-quaver snap lands where it should. Play your bar against it and the difference is the lesson. Photograph it, hear it, understand it, practise it.
Count first, then check. At half speed the dotted rhythm slows down enough that you can feel the short note arriving on the last quarter of the beat, and looping one bar lets you clap it over and over against the correct version until your clap and the playback line up.
Hear the rhythm you just counted.
Photograph the page, press play on one bar at any tempo, loop it, and ask the coach how long that note is. Free to download on iPhone and iPad.
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Ask about your bar
Sheetly is the only iPhone and iPad app we know of where the AI coach has read the actual notes of the page you photographed, so a question about bar 12 gets an answer about your bar 12. For dots and ties that means you can ask how long a particular note lasts, or whether the curve in a particular bar is a tie or a slur, and get an answer about the notes that are actually there.
Ask Sheetly: a coach that has read your score
Not a chatbot bolted onto a music app. The coach has the actual notes of the page you just photographed, so you can ask about your bar 12 and get an answer about what is written in it.
We know of no other sheet-music scanner that does this. Every other tool hands you a transcription and stops.
Free to download · iPhone and iPadQuestions
What does a dot after a note mean?
A dot after a note head adds half the note’s own value to it. A dotted minim (dotted half note) is two beats plus one, three beats. A dotted crotchet (dotted quarter note) is one beat plus a half, one and a half beats. A dotted quaver (dotted eighth note) is half a beat plus a quarter, three quarters of a beat. A dot after a rest works the same way. A dot above or below a note head is different: that is staccato, and it shortens the note.
How many beats is a dotted crotchet (dotted quarter note)?
A dotted crotchet, or dotted quarter note, lasts one and a half beats when a crotchet is the beat, as in 2/4, 3/4 and 4/4. It equals three quavers (eighth notes). Starting on beat 1, it lasts through beat 2 and ends on the ‘and’ of 2, so the next note falls on ‘2 and’. In 6/8, where the quaver is the counting unit, a dotted crotchet is three quavers, which is one of the bar’s two main beats.
What does a double dot mean?
A double dot adds half the note’s value and then half of that again, three quarters of the original in total. A double-dotted minim is two beats plus one plus a half, three and a half beats. A double-dotted crotchet is one plus a half plus a quarter, one and three-quarter beats, which equals seven semiquavers. Double dots are usually followed by a very short note that completes the beat, giving a sharper snap than a single dot.
What is the difference between a tie and a slur?
A tie is a curved line joining two adjacent notes of the same pitch; the second note is not played again, and the two durations add into one held note. A slur is a curved line over two or more notes of different pitches; every note is played, smoothly joined. The test is the pitch: same pitch, next to each other, line from note head to note head, is a tie. Different pitches is a slur. A curved line over two same-pitch notes that also covers other notes is a slur, and each note is played.
How do you count a dotted eighth and sixteenth?
A dotted quaver (dotted eighth) and a semiquaver (sixteenth) together fill one crotchet beat: three quarters plus one quarter. Count the beat in four, ‘1 e and a’: the dotted quaver sounds on ‘1’ and holds through ‘e’ and ‘and’, and the semiquaver falls on ‘a’, just before the next beat. It is a long-short pattern, three to one. Do not let it soften into the two-to-one lilt of a triplet or a swung rhythm; the short note comes later than that.
Can a dotted note cross a barline?
No. A single note, dotted or not, cannot cross a barline. To hold a note across a barline the engraver writes a note that fills the end of the first bar, tied to a note at the start of the next bar, and the two sound as one. A dotted crotchet that starts on beat 4 of a 4/4 bar is written as a crotchet on beat 4 tied to a quaver on beat 1 of the next bar.