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
Grace note notes is always noted in terms of exactly half of its principal note, but may be double or more. Where they are multiple, their proper notation must always equal exactly half of the principal note. (i.e. If the principal note is a quarter-note the grace note must be notated as an eighth- note, two sixteenth notes, four thirty-second notes, or eight sixty-fourth notes, if we are to set aside the concept of unnatural subdivisions of the beat such as the triplet, etc.) Grace notes, unlike what are referred to as cue-notes, never affect the rhythmic subdivision, or musical "count" of