# Music Ties vs dotted notes vs a half note can someone explain the difference? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 6, 2015, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002 "2015-02-06T21:01:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/21 "2015-02-08T01:26:11Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > There’s a couple notes that dip below my root note (middle C) that I’ll ask my vocal teacher about. See what solfege she wants me to use. The solfege doesn’t change for the octaves (note how the scale goes “do re mi fa so la ti do,” with two “dos” for the same note in different octaves.) So the B is “ti” and the A is “la.” ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/22 "2015-02-08T02:25:28Z")
ok, I’ll update my music. Thanks pulykamell. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/23 "2015-02-08T02:33:19Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Thank you. I wasn’t trying to line up my counts exactly over the notes. The solfege is directly under the counts. But, not the actual musical notes. But perhaps it would be easier to read and follow if I did get the counts and notes aligned. > > I wasn’t sure where to put the 1 for ties that extend across measures. You actually begin playing and sustaining the note at the end of the measure. I can easily shift the 1 back over into the measure where it really belongs. Ah I see. Given that you are asking about rhythm notation I think it would be a good idea to arrange your count so that it is accurately positioned above the relevant notes, that makes it clearer to read and will help reinforce what you are learning. ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/24 "2015-02-08T04:08:47Z")
Yeah, sorry if that wasn’t clear. The goal is to line up the counts exactly where they would fall in relation to the notes. Just writing “1 2 &3 4” somewhere in the measure ain’t gonna cut it. 🙂 > [@](#): > > I wasn’t sure where to put the 1 for ties that extend across measures. This is your problem right here. The “1” always, always, always goes at the beginning of the measure. Remember, the beat stays constant, even though the notes may not. So, for example, the first line should look like this: 1 2 3 4 [rest] [rest] I re- 1 2 & 3 4 & mem - ber Dad - dy’s hands\_\_ 1 2 3 4 \_\_ [rest] fold - ed where “hands” is held over into beat 1 of the next measure. But notice how the “1” of each measure (also called the downbeat) isn’t moving. It’s always the first thing that happens in each bar. Hope that helps! Edit: Jeez, the spacing got all messed up. I’d probably have to use HTML or something for that, huh? Well… basically, “mem” and “ber” and on 1 and 2, “Dad” is on the & of 2, 3 is held over from that, 4 is on “-dy’s”, & and 4 is “hands”, which holds over to beat 1 of the next measure. Then beat 2 is a rest, and beats 3 and 4 are “fold” and “-ed”, respectively. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/25 "2015-02-08T05:46:28Z")
Updated Page 1 by realigning my counts and solfege with the notes. Page 2 is done. Many thanks Richard Pearse, pulykamell, DooWahDiddy and others for the help. It’s time consuming annotating with Photoshop. But I’ve learned a lot in the past 24 hours. The counts aren’t nearly as hard as they initially seem. There’s nothing like actually making myself write this stuff out to learn it. Still got 2 more pages for this tune. \ I won’t post those. If these two pages are right, then I think I’ve got the hang of it. btw, for 16th notes. This song doesn’t have any. Say a measure has a half note, two 16th’s, an eighth and a quarter. how do I represent the 16th notes? I know it starts 1 2 3 thinking these are done. feel free to say they aren’t if you see a mistake. 😃 > **[Photobucket | Make your memories fun!](https://s242.photobucket.com/user/aceplace57/media/DaddysHandsP1.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1)** > > Make your memories fun! > **[Photobucket | Make your memories fun!](https://s242.photobucket.com/user/aceplace57/media/DaddysHandsPage2.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0)** > > Make your memories fun! ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/26 "2015-02-08T06:06:13Z")
One of the things I love most about modern electronic metronomes is the little click sound they make on the one beat. It can be frustrating to be strumming along and hear that click when I’m not expecting it. I’m supposed to be on my one count and I’m not. I realize somehow, at some point, I missed a beat on my strum. The old tick tock wind up metronomes were great 25 years ago but electronic is so much better. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/27 "2015-02-08T06:25:25Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Updated Page 1 by realigning my counts and solfege with the notes. > Page 2 is done. > > Many thanks Richard Pearse, pulykamell, DooWahDiddy and others for the help. It’s time consuming annotating with Photoshop. But I’ve learned a lot in the past 24 hours. The counts aren’t nearly as hard as they initially seem. There’s nothing like actually making myself write this stuff out to learn it. > > Still got 2 more pages for this tune. \ I won’t post those. If these two pages are right, then I think I’ve got the hang of it. > > btw, for 16th notes. This song doesn’t have any. Say a measure has a half note, two 16th’s, an eighth and a quarter. how do I represent the 16th notes? I know it starts 1 2 3 > > thinking these are done. feel free to say they aren’t if you see a mistake. 😃 > [Photo Storage](http://s242.photobucket.com/user/aceplace57/media/DaddysHandsP1.jpg.html?sort=3&o=1) > [Photo Storage](http://s242.photobucket.com/user/aceplace57/media/DaddysHandsPage2.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0) The first page is perfect as far as I can tell. The second page has a few bars with a lot of rests in the singing and you don’t have the count following the music e.g., the second to last bar. I don’t know what the “accepted” way of counting 16th notes is, if I had to I’d probably go “one-a-and-a-two-a-and-a-three-a-and-a-four-a-and-a-” etc. Edit: If you have a good PDF editor you can make these annotations quite easily. I did my previous example with Preview which comes with the Mac OS and it took very little time. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/28 "2015-02-08T06:39:55Z")
second to last bar page 2. that’s the C whole note. I just showed 1 2 3 4 for that note. I see what you mean. The piano is playing quarter notes. I’ve pretty much ignored the piano. I’ll play the melody line on my guitar and use that to sing it. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/29 "2015-02-08T08:01:32Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I’ve pretty much ignored the piano. . I see, that makes sense, so you were just marking the time for the rests on the melody line. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/30 "2015-02-08T09:54:39Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > I don’t know what the “accepted” way of counting 16th notes is, if I had to I’d probably go “one-a-and-a-two-a-and-a-three-a-and-a-four-a-and-a-” etc. “One-e-and-a” or “One-e-and-uh” (or written out as “1e+a” or “1e&a”) is the way I’ve always heard. That way, you can distinguish between the second and fourth sixteenth notes of a beat. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/31 "2015-02-08T12:19:20Z")
I was close 😉 ---
**Author:** ![DooWahDiddy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9bcb4/32.png) [@DooWahDiddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DooWahDiddy)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/32 "2015-02-08T16:16:30Z")
Looks great, good job! ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002/33 "2015-02-08T22:27:18Z")
Music notation can get incredibly complicated. Depends on the style of music. I’ve made a good start into relearning music notation. Eighth notes, ties, slurs are the basics that’ll get me through a lot of the music I want to play (classic country, and 70’s soft rock). I’ll gradually get better reading and understanding rhythm with more practice and experience. My music teachers can help me with triplets, duplets, tuplets and other “_lets_”, as I run across them in music that I’m learning. just to keep it fun my Skype teacher is Scottish. Every now and then she mentions quavers and crotchets. Until I remind her I’m American. LOL [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-ties-vs-dotted-notes-vs-a-half-note-can-someone-explain-the-difference/712002.md?page=1)