Dotted note

A note followed by a dot, which lengthens it by half of its own written value.

The dot adds fifty percent to a note value, so a dotted quarter lasts one and a half beats in common time and a dotted eighth lasts three sixteenths. Dotted rhythms are everywhere in music because the long-short inequality they create is what gives a phrase swing, a march its stride and a ballad its lilt. Guitarists meet them constantly in strumming patterns, where a dotted figure followed by a short note is the same shape as a shuffle.

Example: A rhythm written as a dotted eighth followed by a sixteenth has the lopsided long-short feel heard in countless pop songs.

Dotted note

See also