12.5 · Dividing the Beat

The dot & the tie

Two ways to stretch a note. A small dot adds half the note's own length again: a half note (2) becomes a dotted half (3). A tie is a curve that glues two written notes into one sound: their lengths add. Same idea, two spellings.

Do the math

The dot is arithmetic, not decoration.

2 + 1 = 3 beats. One note fills a waltz bar
1 + ½ = 1½ beats. The skip in a thousand melodies

tam-ti: the skip

The dotted quarter almost always travels with an eighth note: together they still fill two beats, but unevenly, long-short. Compare marching with skipping.

1 2 3 41 (2) & 3 4

The tie: the dot's sibling

A half tied to a quarter is 2 + 1 = 3 beats, one unbroken sound. Exactly what a dotted half says in one symbol. Hear them back to back: identical.

3 beats, one symbol
‿2 + 1 beats, glued by the curve

So why does the tie exist? A dot can't cross a barline. A tie can: it's how a note holds through the bar and keeps ringing on the other side.

You already know this sound

"Hap-py birth-day" opens with a dotted skip. The two pickup notes are long-short, not even.

Quiz

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How many beats is this?

Score 100% on every quiz and game to complete this lesson. A perfect run sticks: a later miss never undoes it.Read a bar →