The symbols used to represent relative duration of NOTES are shown below. You are, of course, familiar with most of these. As you study these symbols, be sure you practice drawing them with pencil and paper.
In theory, additional flags could be added to get shorter value notes. But as a practical matter, the use of NOTES beyond the thirty-second NOTE is rare. The above NOTES do not represent exact duration. The precise length of a half NOTE is impossible to determine without other information. The NOTES do, however, represent relative duration. For example, we can say a "whole note is equal to 2 half notes" or a "quarter note is equal to 4 sixteenth notes."
In music RESTS are just as important as note events. The symbols used to represent relative duration of RESTS are shown below. Again, you are probably familiar with some of these. You should also be able to draw each of these symbols.
Study the whole REST and the half REST particularly. They are easily confused. The whole rest "hangs heavily" from the fourth line while the half rest "sits lightly" on the third line.
We will now proceed to try to figure out some of the relationships that exist between the above NOTE and REST values.
