Dotted note note is used less frequently than the dotted note. Typically, as in the example to the right, it is followed by a note whose duration is one-quarter the length of the basic note value, completing the next higher note value. Before the mid 18th century, double dots were not used. Until then, in some circumstances, single dots could mean double dots. In a French overture (and sometimes other Baroque music), notes written as dotted notes are often interpreted to mean double-dotted notes, and the following note is commensurately shortened; see Historically informed performance. A triple-dotted note is a note with
Whole note rest may also be used in music of free rhythm, such as Anglican chant, to denote a whole measure. A whole note (American) or semibreve (British) is a musical note represented by a hollow oval note head—like a half note (or "minim")—and no note stem (see Figure 1). Its length is equal to four beats in time, that is the whole measure (or bar). Most other notes are fractions of the whole note. Half notes last for one half the duration of the whole note, quarter notes (or "crotchets") last for one quarter the duration, and a double whole note