Sixteenth note Sixteenth note In music, a sixteenth note (American) or semiquaver (British) is a note played for half the duration of an eighth note (quaver), hence the names. It is the equivalent of the semifusa in mensural notation, first found in 15th-century notation . Sixteenth notes are notated with an oval, filled-in note head and a straight note stem with two flags (see Figure 1). A single sixteenth note is always stemmed with flags, while two or more are usually beamed in groups . A corresponding symbol is the sixteenth rest (or semiquaver rest), which denotes a silence for the same
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