Time Values
Time Values
In music, the time value is simply the duration of a given note. In order to understand the time values of musical notes, we must be able to distinguish each note by its shape.
The shape of a note determines how long the note should be held or sustained. All notes have different shapes, made up of the head, a stem, and tail(s).
Now, let’s talk about our first note:
Crotchets
Crotchets are the commonest lengths of notes in music. It has a black note head and a stem. A crotchet typically signifies one beat. Crotchets can be written with the stem pointing up or pointing down (we’ll talk about that later).
Typical crotchet representation:
or
Crotchets are also called quarter notes.
Below are 4 crotchets on the line E.
Quavers
Quavers are twice as fast as crotchets. The quaver notes look just like the crotchet note. The only difference is the presence of a tail in the quaver note. Typical quaver representation:
or 
Two or more semiquavers can join (or beamed) to make them easier to read. We shall talk about beaming in the Beaming of Notes topic. Shown below are 8 quavers: 4 Gs and 4 Es
Minims
Notes which are twice as long as crotchets are called minims. They look like crotchets, but their heads are white, not black.
Minims are also called “half notes”.
Typical representation of a minim: 
or 
This is a minim note B and G on the bass clef.
Semibreves
Semibreves are notes that are twice as long as minims, or four times as long as crotchets. Shown below is a semibreve:
Here is a semibreve whole note E in the bass clef:
Semiquavers
Semiquavers are twice as fast as quavers, and 4 times as fast as crotchets. Four semiquavers take up the same amount of time as 1 crotchet quarter note. Simply speaking, a semiquaver is equal to a quarter of a crotchet. Semiquavers look just like quavers, but they have two tails where quavers have one. A typical representation of semiquavers:
or 
We can also join two or more semiquavers together to make it easier to read, like this:
Shown below are some semiquavers in action:
Breve
Oh, what, We talked about the semiquaver, and we talked about the quaver. Also, we just talked about the semibreve. Does that mean there is a note called “Breve”? Oh Yes, there is. A breve, which is equivalent to two semibreves aren’t seen frequently these days, and you don’t need them for your ABRSM Grade 1 theory exam.