You’ve probably seen this in music and you might have wondered exactly what a dot does to a note. To preface, we are not talking about staccato notes (which have dots above or below notes) but dots next to notes that look like this:
The short answer is that these dots change the length of a note.
The real question is how much does it change the length of a note? There is an explanation that many teachers and pianist use that might seem a little confusing. If you add a dot to a note it adds half the value of the note. With a little dissection this is easy enough to understand but trying to teach this to younger students can be a real challenge. Luckily, there is a simpler way to explain this.
I typically teach students what these dots mean using the following phrase: a dot after a note adds the value of the next faster note. This is really simple if you know all your notes because each note is half the value of the next note. For example, if you have a whole note, it’s the value of two half notes. This chart should help explain things a bit more:
So knowing this information, what would a dot do to each these notes? Luckily we have another chart here that will help explain it:
So a dot next to a whole note would mean that you would have a whole note plus the value of a half note. A half note with a dot next to it would mean you have a half note plus the value of a quarter note. The same rule applies for all notes with a dot next to them. I always encourage my students to think of dots next to notes as adding the value of the next faster note because it makes it easier to figure out.
There is even one more way of looking at this to break down dots next to notes that could be potentially easier for students. Breaking down the true value of notes with dots next to them actually doesn’t take any sort of addition at all. In this chart we break down the true value of each of these notes:
As you can see:
A dotted whole note = three half notes
A dotted half note = three quarter notes
A dotted quarter note = three eighth notes
A dotted eighth note = three sixteenth notes
When you think about it this way it could be even easier for you to break down rhythms. What about when you see two dots next to a note? This is going to be covered next time!
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