in this video I will be explaining the names of notes along with their value and their rest symbol I'll also be explaining dotted notes I'll be listing the notes on this side of the screen one by one although I'll be using the British note naming system in this video I'll also list their American equivalent name no system is better than the other but you'll notice that the American names appear smaller this is purely to save space on the screen so let's start with a semi brief or whole note as you can see from the far left hand column it looks very much like a small letter o in fact when you start to write music it's often easy just to think of it as a small letter O it has a value of four this is a minim and has a value of two it looks like a semi breath but it has a stem that little black line attached to it as it has a value of two you'd need two minims to equal the value of one semi brief which has the value of four any note which has a stem and we'll look at some more in a moment it's very important to ensure that the stem is on the right if the note head is at the bottom whereas the stem is placed on the left if the note head is at the top this sounds like me being very picky but it's very important here's a capital letter e if I move the line to the other side it looks very odd in fact it looks like the number three not very helpful if you mean an e rather than a three the correct placement of the stem is just as important all notes with stems follow this rule this is a crotchet and has a value of one notice how it looks like a minim but the note head is all black as it has a value of one you'd need four crotchets to equal the value of one semi breath this is a Quaver and has a value of half notice how it looks like a crotchet but we've added a tail to the stem let's just take a moment to look a little more at Tails here are two Quavers each with their tails and I've highlighted one of the Tails so you can be absolutely sure about what I'm referring to when two Quavers sit next to each other and sometimes three or four the tail can often be glued together to look like this this means there are still two Quavers and together they equal one because half plus a half equals 1 now there are some quite complex rules relating to joining of notes like these together musicians refer to the rules as beaming I look at beaming in another video so if you need some assistance have a look there if you need to so as the Quaver has a value of half you'd need how many to equal the value of one semi breath you'd need eight as I mentioned earlier the stem always sits on the right if the note head is at the bottom and on the left if the note head is at the top however the tail always sits on the right this would never be correct as the tail is on the left finally this is a semiquaver semi means half so it literally means half a Quaver half of a Quaver would be a quarter notice how it looks like a Quaver but has another tail added when four semiquavers sit next to each other and sometimes two or three semiquavers the stems can be glued together to look like this it's worth noting here that different notes with Tails like Quavers and semiquavers can often be joined or beamed together this isn't always possible and as I said earlier I do look at beaming in another of my videos however so so you understand what I mean by this here is a Quaver and two semiquavers because all of the notes have tails they are often beam together to look like this notice how they are beamed they are all neatly joined together to form one group this grouping would be incorrect because one of the tales of the final semiquaver is sticking out of the group of notes this would also be incorrect because only the top line is joining all three notes the second tail is not join together anyway before I bog you down with beaming let's go back to the semiquavers themselves as each semiquaver has a value of a quarter you'd need 16 of them to equal the value of one semi brief when trying to learn note names and their values it's always worth building a pyramid like this so you can see exactly how each note splits into other notes if you need to pause this video or rewind it to help you learn these notes now you can see that from our list on the left there is no note listed here which represents a value of three well such a note does exist and it looks like this it's called a dotted minim notice how it looks like a minim but it's got a DOT after it hence why it's called a dotted minim the dot is very important let me explain when a DOT is on the right hand side of a note it means means add half of the note value to itself this sounds complicated but it is fairly straightforward this note without the dot is a minim and worth two if we add a DOT the dot says add another half of the minim to the total value so half a minim is one therefore a minim add one equals 3 a dotted minim equals 3 before I go any further just be aware that the dot must be to the right hand side of a note don't get confused with a DOT which is under or above the note head as this means staccato which means play the note short or detached a DOT can be added to any note this is a crotchet it's worth one if we add a dot it means add half the value of a crotchet half of a crotchet is half therefore the value of this note is 1 and A2 let's have a quick look at a dotted Quaver we already know that a Quaver equals half the dot adds half of that value half of a half is a quarter so we add that quarter to the half the total value is 34 so remember a DOT adds half of the value of the note to itself therefore to have a note which equals a value of three we add a DOT to a minim a dotted minim finally let's have a look at rests a rest is a symbol that tells the musician to stop playing for a specific time or value for example perhaps a composer of a piece for clarinet and piano wants the clarinet to stop playing for the value of a crotchet or maybe even an entire bar music contains symbols which represent silence for a specific value the rest symbol for a crotchet which has a value of one is this and you can see that I've added it to the colum called rest and we call it a crotchet rest so a crotchet equals one but if a composer wanted a misici to be silent for a value of one they would write this symbol now I often get asked what's the easiest way to write a crotchet rest as it does look a little complex well it takes a little bit of practice but my advice is to firstly draw a little Zed or Z if you prefer secondly add a little Loop to the bottom okay it doesn't look anything special but if you draw it neatly it will be clear that you're drawing a crotchet rest always be careful when drawing notes and rests on a Stave this is too big this is too small the crotchet rest fits nicely like this on The Stave a Quaver rest looks like this a little seven with a blob at the start of the symbol like the Quaver it's worth half a semiquaver rest looks similar to a Quaver rest remember that a Quaver has one tail so the Quaver rest has one arm a semiquaver has two tails so its rest has two arms so this symbol represents a rest of a quarter now the rest for a minim semi breath and dotted minim look very similar let's look at the minim rest first it's a little black rectangle which I've put onto a Stave those five lines two very important things to notice here number one the black rectangle sits on the line and secondly it sits on the middle line and not any other line the reason these two things are important becomes clear if we now look at the semi brief rest we use the same little black rectangle but notice how this time it hangs from the line rather than sits like the mini rest and secondly it hangs from the line above where the minim rest sits a semi brief rest will only ever hang from the line which I've highlighted in red an important feature of the semi breath rest is that it also represents a full bars rest in almost every other time signature there are a few exceptions but if you see this it means either a 4 beat rest or a whole bars rest the dotted minim rest looks like a minim rest but has a DOT next to it the dot Works in exactly the same same way as it does with a note it adds half the value of the rest to itself in other words the black rectangle sitting on the line is a rest worth two the dot adds half of that value to itself one so 2 + 1 equal three dots can be added to other rest symbols here's our crotchet rest which is worth one if we add a DOT next to it 1 plus half of its own value a half equals 1 and a half now you might ask why have a dotted crotchet rest when you could just have a crotchet rest and then a Quaver rest instead well yes you you can but there are some very complicated rules about the use of rest and I Do cover them in another of my videos for the moment just be sure that you understand that dots can be added to rests as well as notes so before we finish just a reminder you must learn these notes their names their values and their rest symbol secondly if it helps to remember the value of notes draw a pyramid like I did earlier thirdly a DOT next to a note or a rest adds half the value of the note or rest value to itself so here's a qu rest which is worth half add a dot it becomes 3/4 as half add half of itself a quarter becomes 3/4 I do hope this video has been useful to you many thanks for watching