The longest note in common use is the whole note . A half note lasts for half the time of a whole note, a quarter note lasts for a quarter of the time, an eighth note for an eighth, a sixteenth note for a sixteenth, and so on. (We are dealing here with proportional lengths; how long any note lasts in absolute time depends on the tempo: see page 7).

When the short notes come in groups, they can also be notated as shown at the top of the next column.

The flags — they look more like pennants — at the sides of the note stems have been connected into horizontal beams for easier reading:

Composers use not only sounds but also short silences called rests.

Compare the whole- and half-note rests, which are slugs beneath or atop one of the lines of the staff.

The shorter rests have their own sort of flags. As with notes, more flags can be added to rests, with each flag cutting the time value in half. Thus, three flags on a rest make it a thirty-second rest.