Grade 3

2. Notes, Symbols & Terms

The Demisemiquaver
The smallest note you will have come across in grades 1 and 2 is the semiquaver.
Remember that 4 semiquavers are worth 1 crotchet.
A semiquaver has two little tails on the stem, which are always on the right hand side.

The demisemiquaver is worth half a semiquaver. You need 8 demisemiquavers to make

up the value of 1 crotchet. A demisemiquaver has three little tails:

Demisemiquavers are usually grouped and beamed in fours:

But because we need eight of them to equal one crotchet, we often put two groups of
four together:

To make it easier to see the division of beats, many people prefer to use one long beam
at the top, to join all the notes, and then two shorter beams on each group of four:

One semibreve is worth 32 demisemiquavers. One minim is worth 16. One crotchet is
worth 8. One quaver is worth 4. One semiquaver is worth 2 demisemiquavers.
The demisemiquaver rest looks like this:

It has three tails, and each tail sits within a space on the stave.
Although you can use an Italian term for tempo, e.g. allegro or andante, these terms are
not very exact.
If you want to set an exact tempo, you need to use a metronome marking. This is a
traditional metronome: The rod swings from left to right and makes a loud click each
time. The clicks tell you what speed to play at. The square slider on the rod can be
moved up and down. If you slide it up, the clicks become slower. If you move it down,
they become faster. There is a gauge on the body of the metronome which tells you
what speed the rod is clicking at.
You can play with a virtual metronome at the website www.metronomeonline.com. Click
the “on” button, then choose a number – that is your tempo in beats per minute. If you
choose 60, the clicks will be exactly one second apart, because there are 60 seconds in
a minute. Metronomes also show the Italian terms used for a certain range of tempos –
you can see that largo is from about 42-50 beats per minute. At the beginning of a piece

you might see something like = 60. This means you need to play one crotchet (quarter
note) every second, or 60 per minute. Set the metronome to 60, and play a crotchet
(quarter note) with every click. What if you see = 72? This means the tempo is 72
minims (half notes) per minute. Set the metronome to 72 and play a minim (half note)