"Sixteenth Note Gets A
Smaller Piece Of The Pie!"

The sixteenth note typically gets just a quarter beat in music - that's half of what an eight note gets. Four of them together would complete one beat. It resembles the eighth note, except it has a double flag instead of a single one. As with all stemmed notes, whether its stem goes up or down depends on its position on the staff:

To get an accurate feel of how it should be played, it helps to subdivide a beat into four equal parts mentally or orally (preferably the latter as you're getting the hang of it).

When counting them, it helps to assign a syllable to each quarter beat. One effective way to do this is by recalling how we learned to count the eighth note here - we still say the number for the first half of the beat but, in addition, we divide that half into two equal parts. Instead of simply saying "1" for example, you would say "1-e"...

For the second half of the beat, divide it into two equal parts as well, starting with "and"... then say "ah"...

So, for the full beat you would say "1-e-and-ah" - I like to simplify it this way: "1 e + a"...

This visual clearly illustrates the relationship between eighths and sixteenths:

For starters...

* one whole note

* one half note and eight sixteenths

* two quarter notes, two eighth notes and four sixteenths

There are many, many more. Come up with some of your own...

You're doing well with note values! If want to review any of the above mentioned, please visit here

I look forward to continuing with you on our musical journey together!

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