{"id":201942,"date":"2022-09-16T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2022-09-16T13:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/?p=201942"},"modified":"2025-08-31T23:23:46","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T06:23:46","slug":"dotted-notes-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/dotted-notes-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Dotted Notes in Music &#8211; How to Count Dotted Rhythms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What are dotted notes in music theory?<\/p>\n<p>We can add a dot to any sort of note.\u00a0 When a note is dotted in music, the rhythm is changed.<\/p>\n<p>The rule is that a dot adds half the note value to the written note. This formula holds for whole notes, half notes, quarters, and all other notes.<\/p>\n<p>When we understand the dotted note formula, we can play our pieces in rhythm.\u00a0 We can also use a dotted rhythm to increase our <a href=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/speed-dotted-rhythms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technical skills and speed<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"centerc\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fkx8j6S4l64?rel=0&amp;modestbranding=1\" width=\"700\" height=\"393\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Dotted Notes in Music Rhythms<\/h2>\n<p>When we see a dot beside a note, we add time to the duration of the note.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_201948\" style=\"width: 233px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-201948\" class=\"size-full wp-image-201948\" src=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/theory-dotted-notes-4.jpg\" alt=\"dotted notes in music explained\" width=\"223\" height=\"137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/theory-dotted-notes-4.jpg 223w, https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/theory-dotted-notes-4-100x61.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-201948\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dot beside a note changes the length of time we hold the note.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The dotted note formula is the original note plus one-half of the original.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_201947\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-201947\" class=\"size-full wp-image-201947\" src=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/theory-dotted-notes-3.jpg\" alt=\"dot beside note in music\" width=\"400\" height=\"138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/theory-dotted-notes-3.jpg 400w, https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/theory-dotted-notes-3-300x104.jpg 300w, https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/theory-dotted-notes-3-100x35.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-201947\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Dotted note formula: The dot adds half the note value to the duration.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>For instance, a half note gets two beats. A dotted half note will get those two beats, plus half the value of two, which is one. So in total, this is three beats. 2 + 1 = 3. A dotted half note gets three beats.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, a dotted quarter note will get one beat plus half of one beat &#8211; or 1 and 1\/2 beats.\u00a0 This could be a quarter note and an eighth note, or three eighth notes.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_201945\" style=\"width: 410px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-201945\" class=\"wp-image-201945 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/theory-dotted-notes-1.jpg\" alt=\"dotted notes in music\" width=\"400\" height=\"137\" srcset=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/theory-dotted-notes-1.jpg 400w, https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/theory-dotted-notes-1-300x103.jpg 300w, https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/theory-dotted-notes-1-100x34.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-201945\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A dotted quarter gets 1 1\/2 beats.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Note: <a href=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/music-rests\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rests in music<\/a> can also be dotted.\u00a0 And dotted notes (and rests) can&#8217;t go over a bar line.\u00a0 For that, we need a <a href=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/theory-ties\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tied note<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>The dot placement matters<\/h3>\n<p>A dot above or below the note means something else.\u00a0 Dotted notes where the dot is above or below the note head suggest that we play the notes short and separated. The musical term for this is <a href=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/muting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stacatto<\/a>. This is not a change in the note duration.<\/p>\n<p>So for example, we still <em>count<\/em> the full duration of, say, a half note, but we don&#8217;t <em>play<\/em> it for the full duration.\u00a0 We stop it short to create a silence before the next note.\u00a0 The length of the silence can vary, but the silence and the note added together still create the duration of a half note.<\/p>\n<p>For a note to be a dotted note rhythm, the dot will be<strong> <em>beside<\/em><\/strong> the note head.\u00a0 The dot will always be to the right of the note.\u00a0 Never the left.\u00a0 This is true for all note values (half, quarter, etc.)<\/p>\n<p>If the note is on a line, the dot will be to the right of the note, in the space above that line.\u00a0 If the note is in a space, the dot will be positioned in the same space.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">How to Clap and a Count Dotted Note in Music<\/h2>\n<p>When we<a href=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/clap-count-rhythm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> clap and count<\/a> dotted rhythms, we hold the note for the full value. And we continue counting throughout.<\/p>\n<p>For example, we may count two half notes as \u201c1 2, 3 4.\u201d Or \u201c1 2, 1 2.\u201d The claps land on 1 and 3, or 1 and 1, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>For a dotted half and quarter, we still have a total of 4 beats. But the dotted note gets three and the quarter gets one. So \u201c1 2 3, 4.\u201d The clap lands on 1 and 4.<\/p>\n<p>The total beats in each measure will stay consistent with the <a href=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/time-signature\/\">time signature<\/a>\u00a0for the piece.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Double Dotted Notes<\/h2>\n<p>In music theory, we can also find double dotted notes.\u00a0 This is where we see a note with two dots following it.\u00a0 This can look confusing, and in practice, we don&#8217;t come across them very often.<\/p>\n<p>Double dotted notes are counted by adding the duration of the first dot, and then adding half the value of the first dot again to the note duration.\u00a0 Note that each dot has a different value.<\/p>\n<p>So a double dotted quarter note would be a quarter, plus an 8th, plus a 16th.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em>Many thanks to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.musictheory.net\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">MusicTheory.net<\/a>\u00a0for some of the images above.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What are dotted notes in music theory? We can add a dot to any sort of note.\u00a0 When a note is dotted in music, the rhythm is changed. The rule is that a dot adds half the note value to the written note. This formula holds for whole notes, half notes, quarters, and all other notes. When we understand the &#8230; <\/p>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/dotted-notes-music\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":201853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,434],"tags":[63,349],"class_list":["post-201942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-main-content-parent","tag-reading-music","tag-theory"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.8 (Yoast SEO v25.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Discover How Many beats are in Dotted Notes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Discover the formula to play dotted notes, like the dotted half note and quarter note. They are commonly found in music. Free walkthrough and more.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/classicalguitarshed.com\/dotted-notes-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dotted Notes in Music - How to Count Dotted Rhythms\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Discover the formula to play dotted notes, like the dotted half note and quarter note. They are commonly found in music. 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