Identical apart from whether the notehead is filled, which is a great deal of meaning carried by one detail.
Look at the head. A hollow oval with a stem is a half note lasting two beats; a filled oval with a stem is a quarter note lasting one. Nothing else differs — same stem, same position, same everything — and at small print sizes the fill is easily lost, which is why this is the distinction beginners miss most often.
Identical apart from whether the head is hollow or filled, which is easily lost at small sizes.
| Half note | Quarter note | |
|---|---|---|
| Notehead | Hollow | Filled |
| Length in common time | Two beats | One beat |
| British name | Minim | Crotchet |
| Stem | Present | Present — no help in telling them apart |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Quarter note — Identical apart from whether the head is hollow or filled, which is easily lost at small sizes.; Part of the same system as Quarter note — Adjacent values in the halving series. | Commonly confused with Half note — The fill of the head is the only difference. |
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for what a mark instructs a performer to do and for uncontested history, never for a claim that any body defines staff notation.
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for what a mark instructs a performer to do and for uncontested history, never for a claim that any body defines staff notation.
Both are drawn as one continuous decorative stroke with a closed loop and a tail that crosses back over itself, which is why a description of the shape alone reaches both. The clef is far taller, spans a stave, and its spiral encircles one specific line — that encircled line is the note G, and it is the only reason the shape is drawn where it is.
Check where the dot sits. A dot immediately to the right of the notehead adds half the note's value again — a dotted half note lasts three beats. A dot directly above or below the head means staccato: play it short and detached. One dot, two opposite instructions, and only position distinguishes them.
They occupy the same place and are read the same way. A C means four-four; two stacked numerals state any metre explicitly. The C is not an abbreviation of the word 'common' — it descends from a broken circle used in medieval notation to mean imperfect time, and a full circle meant threefold time.
Length is the tell. A crescendo hairpin is drawn long, below a stave, and spans the passage it applies to — its extent *is* the instruction. A less-than sign is one character wide and sits between two values. If it stretches, it is music; if it fits between two numbers, it is mathematics.