Note Values at the Keys
A whole note is not a long tap. It is four beats of holding the key down while the sound fades — and a rest is a note you play by lifting.
Builds on: 2.1 Playing with a Metronome
How long a note lasts
Every note on the staff has a shape, and the shape says how many beats it lasts. A hollow head with no stem is a whole note: four beats. A hollow head with a stem is a half note: two. A filled head with a stem is a quarter note: one beat, the note you played on every click last lesson. Add a flag to the stem and it is an eighth: half a beat, two per click.
A piano note rings — count it
On a piano you press once and the string keeps sounding while you hold the key. So a half note is a single strike followed by holding the key for two counts: “1, 2”, and only on “3” does the finger lift. The most common beginner error is to play every note as a quarter and simply wait for the long ones — the key comes up too early, the sound stops, and the line has holes in it. Count out loud and keep the finger down until the next number belongs to the next note.
Eighths in pairs, and the dot
Eighth notes usually come in pairs joined by a beam, and a pair takes exactly one beat: the first eighth on the number, the second on the “and”. A dotted quarter lasts a beat and a half, and it is almost always followed by a single eighth that finishes the second beat — “1 (and) 2 and” with the note landing on the last “and”. That long-short pattern is the rhythm of Jingle Bells and of half the Christmas carols ever written; you will play it in Unit 4.
Rests are played too
A rest is silence with a length, and silence on a piano is made by lifting. A quarter rest means: on this beat, the key is up. Rests are not gaps where nothing happens — you are counting through them, and the lift is as deliberate as a strike. Get the lift on time and your rhythms stop sounding mushy.
Speak the numbers while you play: “1 2 3 4” for quarters, “1 and 2 and” for eighths, and hold the count through long notes. It feels silly and it works better than anything else. Pianists who count out loud in practice play in time on stage.
The first exercise is a rhythm you tap: quarter, quarter, two eighths, quarter, four times through. The second is Mary Had a Little Lamb in the right hand — a real tune whose staff shows every value, so you can see the half notes coming and hold them.
🎹 Exercise — Mixed Values
The pattern is quarter – quarter – eighth-eighth – quarter, four bars long: taps on 1, 2, 3, 3-and, 4. Any key.
- Count “1, 2, 3 and 4” out loud through the count-in and keep going.
- The two eighths must be dead even — the second one lands exactly halfway to 4.
🎹 Exercise — Mary, in Time
Mary Had a Little Lamb, right hand, C position. The exercise waits for each note, but read the values on the staff and hold the half notes for two full counts.
- Bars 2 and 3 end in half notes — keep the key down until you count “2”.
- The last note is a whole note: hold it for four.
Press the highlighted key to begin — any input works.