Welcome back to our two part series on dots and notes. Last time we covered What a Dot Does to a Note. Today we are going to discuss what two dots do to a note.
Last time we talked about how adding a dot to a note adds the value of the next faster note. So what do two dots do to notes?
You might have seen these before:
It’s a little bit more complex than a single dotted noted and the general definition would be adding the value of the next faster note and then adding the value of the next faster note after that one or even more confusingly, adding half the value of the note plus a quarter value of the note. This is a needlessly complex way of explaining this and nobody wants to be doing math in their head while trying to play their music. Let’s take a look at the actual values of these double dotted notes and discuss this:
So let’s break down this concept using a whole note. In the case of a whole note you would add the value of a half note and a quarter note onto the whole note.
Whole note = 4 beats
Half note = 2 beats
Quarter note = 1 beat
Double Dotted Whole Note = Whole note + Half Note + Quarter note = 7 beats
All the note values can be broken down this way. At first it might be confusing but breaking it down into note values is so much easier than using fractions.
So while this isn’t a long lesson today it’s certainly an important and somewhat complex one. I hope this helps de-mystify this subject for you. Just for reference, here is a full chart of the note values when adding a dot or two dots to a note.
Thanks again for joining us here at Living Pianos. If you have any questions please contact us directly info@livingpianos.com (949) 244-3729.