Half note Half note In music, a half note (American) or minim (British) is a note played for half the duration of a whole note (or semibreve) and twice the duration of a quarter note (or crotchet). It was given its Latin name ("minima", meaning "least or smallest") because it was the shortest of the five note values used in early medieval music notation . In time signatures with 4 as the bottom number, such as or , the half note is two beats long. However, when 2 is the bottom number (including "alla breve", ), the half note is one beat
Double whole note a silence for the same duration (; ). Double whole rests are drawn as filled-in rectangles occupying the whole vertical space between the second and third lines from the top of the musical staff. They are often used in long silent passages which are not divided into separate bars to indicate a rest of two bars . This and longer rests are collectively known as multiple rests . Alla breve, the time signature , takes its name from the note value breve. In the mensural notation of the Renaissance, it was an alternative term for "proportio dupla", which meant that