Dotted Notes
Whenever you see a dot AFTER a note, this means that the amount of beats we hold it on for is longer. It would look like this:
A dot lengthens the note that is is attached to by another half of that notes value. For example, a crotchet is worth one beat, but a dotted crotchet (a crotchet with a dot) is worth 'one and a half' beats:
A minim is worth 2 beats, but a dotted minim is worth 3 beats
So essentially, we can have a dot after any of our notes:
If we used dotted notes on the music stave, it would look like this:
You will notice in the picture that when we use a dotted crotchet we have a quaver rest after it. This is because the dotted crotchet is half a beat less than 2 beats. Of course, we don't have to use a rest, we can easily use a quaver after the dotted crotchet (as well fill in the other rests with notes):
Ties
Ties work in a similar fashion to dots as they also lengthen notes. Ties are shown by a connecting line between two or more notes, eg. between these two crotchets:
Usually, without the tie, a performer would play both of the crotchets separately. But when a tie is between them, you play the first note and hold it on for the duration of both. So instead of hearing two separate notes you would hear one that last for two beats. This can apply to any note values that are tied together:
Of course, this can only apply to notes that are of the same pitch. You cannot hold a sound on if the second note has changed (it would defeat the purpose). So when looking at the musical stave, you will only find ties between notes of the same pitch:
Summary:
- Dots and Ties both extend the length that a note is held on for
- Dots add an extra half of the value (beats) of a note
- Ties join together the value (beats) of two or more notes
