Dotted note

File:Dotted notes3.svg

Dotted notes and their equivalent durations. The curved lines, called ties, add the note values together.

In Western musical notation, a dotted note is a note with a small dot written after it.Template:Efn In modern practice, the first dot increases the duration of the original note by half of its value. This makes a dotted note equivalent to the original note tied to a note of half the value – for example, a dotted half note is equivalent to a half note tied to a quarter note. Subsequent dots add progressively halved value, as shown in the example to the right.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

The use of dotted notes dates back at least to the 10th century, but the exact amount of lengthening a dot provides in early music contexts may vary. Mensural notation uses a dot of division to clarify ambiguities about its context-dependent interpretation of rhythmic values, sometimes alongside the dot of augmentation as described above. In the gregorian chant editions of Solesmes, a dot is typically interpreted as a doubling of length (see also Neume).

Historical examples of music performance practices using unequal rhythms include notes inégales and swing. The precise performance of dotted rhythms can be a complex issue. Even in notation that employs dots, their performed values may be longer or shorter than the dot mathematically indicates, practices known as over-dotting or under-dotting.

Notation

If dotted note is on a space, the dot is placed in that space. If the note is on a line, the dot is placed in the space above. This principle also applies to notes on ledger lines.

<score sound> {

   \relative c {
       \time 4/4
       c4. d8 b8. a16 g4
   }

} </score>

The placement of dots need not follow this convention when space does not allow for it. For example, when dots apply to adjacent notes in a chord or notes in multiple voices.

<score sound> {

   << \clef treble
       \relative c {
           \time 4/4
           \stemNeutral 4. e8 <g, a b c d>4. b8
           \stemUp d4. c8 b8. c16 d c8.
       } \\ \relative c {
           s1
           g4. a8 b8. a16 g a8.
       }
   >>

} </score>

Any note value can be dotted, as can rests of any value. If the rest is in its normal vertical position near the middle of the staff, dots are placed in the third staff space.Template:Sfn Dotted rests are conventional in compound meters but can sometimes be used in simple meters as well.

<score> {

   \relative c {
       \time 6/8
       r2. r4. r8. r8.
   }

} </score>

In Baroque music, dotted notation was sometimes used to indicate triplet rhythms when the context makes it obvious.

Dots have been used across barlines, such as in H. C. Robbins Landon's edition of Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 70 in D major, but this usage is obsolete—a tie across the barline is used instead.Template:Sfn

Double dotting

<score sound> {

   \relative c {
       \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"violin"
       \key bes \major
       \time 2/4
       f8.. es32 d8-. d-. 
       d( es) c4
   }  }

</score>

A fragment of the second movement of Joseph Haydn's String Quartet, Op. 74, No. 2, a theme and variations. The first note is double-dotted. Haydn's theme was adapted for piano by an unknown composer.

File:Meditation -- Josef Haydn.mid

(3.7 kB MIDI file)

A double-dotted note is a note with two small dots written after it, with a duration of 1+3⁄4 times its basic note value. Double-dotted notes are much less common than single dotted notes. Typically, as in the example to the right, they are followed by a note whose duration is one-quarter the length of the basic note value, completing the next higher note value. Double dots were not used until the mid-18th century, before which a single dot could sometimes mean a double dot.

In a French overture (and sometimes other Baroque music), notes written as single dotted notes are often interpreted to mean double-dotted notes, and the following note is commensurately shortened (see Historically informed performance).

Beyond two dots

<score> { \relative c { \tempo 4 = 120 \time 4/4 f4... f32 f4... f32 e1 } }</score>

File:Triple-dotted note no dots.mid

(0 dots)

File:Triple-dotted note one dots.mid

(1 dot)

File:Triple-dotted note two dots.mid

(2 dots)

File:Triple-dotted note three dots.mid

(3 dots)

Triple dotted notes are very uncommon, and quadruple dotted notes are extremely rare. Triple-dotted notes are found in the music of Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner, especially in brass parts. Their duration is 1+7⁄8 times the basic note value.

Triple-dotted notes also appear in Frédéric Chopin's Prelude in G major for piano, Op. 28, No. 3. The piece, in common time (Template:Music), contains running semiquavers (sixteenth notes) in the left hand. Several times during the piece the right hand plays a triple-dotted minim (half note), lasting 15 semiquavers, simultaneously with the first left-hand semiquaver, then one semiquaver simultaneously with the last left-hand semiquaver.

Quadruple-dotted notes, with a duration of 1+15⁄16 times its basic note value, are extremely rare. A quintuple dotted note would be 1+31⁄32 times the original note's value.Template:Efn This becomes impractical due to the increasingly small gradation of the length of such a note (notes shorter than sixty-fourth notes are rare and at the limits of what is practical) and the fact that multiple dots obscure any intermediate divisions of the beat, making the rhythm more difficult to read.

Base note duration = 1

	Undotted	1 dot	2 dots	3 dots	4 dots
Lengthens	N/A ($0$)	1⁄2 $=0.5$	1⁄4 $=0.25$	1⁄8 $=0.125$	1⁄16 $=0.0625$
Decimal result	$1$	$1.5$	$1.75$	$1.875$	$1.9375$
Fractional result	$1$	$1$1⁄2	$1$3⁄4	$1$7⁄8	$1$15⁄16

See also

• Dotted rest
• Tuplet

Notes and references

Notes Template:Notelist References Template:Reflist Sources

External links

• Template:Commons category-inline
• "Learn to Read Drum Music – Part 6 – Dotted Notes Explained", thenewdrummer.com