The eighth note otherwise known as the quaver is our first node value that is smaller than one beat. It's held for a half a beat, which represents an eighth of a bar. two eighth notes equal one quarter note, four eighth notes equal one half load, and eight eighth notes equal one whole note. When counting eighth notes, you can count them like this, one and two, and three, and four, and this effectively helps you to split each beat in half. Notice that like the quarter note, the eighth note also has a solid head and the stem, but it also has a flag that goes off to the right. Regardless of whether the stem is facing up or down, the flag still goes off to the right.

Now when you have two eighth notes side by side, you join this stems with one common flag. The stems of both modes will points in the direction The first eighth note would normally point. For example, look at these two notes which represent middle C and the C found on the first fret of your B string. The stem of the high C would normally point down, but since the first eighth notes stem is pointing up, the second c stem is pointing up to although it is a very short stem. If you have four eighth notes side by side, you would use the same principle point all of their stems in the direction of the first eighth note and join them all with one single flag. This holds true for eighth notes that make up the first and second beat of the bar, as well as the third and fourth beat of the bar.

However, if you have two eighth notes, making up the second beat, and two eighth notes making up the third beat, beats two and three wouldn't be joined by a common flag. It's best to keep the second and the third beat separate. The sixth example shows eight eighth notes per bar, all the notes he Notice how beats one and two, and beats three and four are joined with a common flag. Here's how it would sound one and two and three and four. chords can also have an eighth note value. In this example, the first eighth note of each bar is a familiar chord made up of the notes G, B and E. Here's what it sounds like.

One, two and three and four n To indicate silence for a half a beat, use an eighth wrist otherwise known as a quaver wrist. The eighth wrist looks like a seven, which extends from the third space of the stave, down to the second line. The horizontal line of the seven represents the flag of the eighth note. Notice the eighth rest in bars two and four here, that indicates sons for the first half of two. Here's how you play this example. One and two, and three, and four.

In the next lesson, we'll write out all of the examples we used here.