Note Value and Rhythm Exercises

Exercises to practice note values and rhythm: recognize notes and rests, work out their equivalences, know how long each note lasts in a measure, add up the notes of a measure, tell a tie from a slur, and see why a dot is a shortened tie. Answers are checked right away.

The exercises

1. Identify notes and rests: you see a symbol and say what it is. Whole, half, quarter (UK: crotchet), eighth and sixteenth notes, their rests, and all of them with a dot and a double dot.
2. Note value equivalences: how many eighth notes fit in a dotted half note, or which note equals three quarter notes.
3. Note values in each time signature: how many beats a note or a rest lasts in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8. The same dotted quarter note lasts 1½ beats in 2/4 and exactly one beat in 6/8.
4. Add up the notes in a measure: several notes and rests in a row, and how many beats they add up to.
5. Ties and slurs: which one it is and how long the first note it covers lasts.
6. A dot is a tie: every dotted note sounds the same as a pair of tied notes (with a double dot, three tied notes). You practice it in both directions.

The order of the list is the recommended one: first recognize the notes, then their equivalences (which do not depend on the time signature), and then their value in beats, which does.

The theory of each topic is in the dictionary: note values, the dot, ties and slurs and time signatures. To go on, see the time signature exercises.

Printable worksheets (PDF)

Five of the six exercises have a one-sided A4 worksheet with its answer sheet, with the answers in red (the “dotted notes and ties” exercise is interactive only for now). You can print and photocopy them freely for class.