Dots, Ties & Rest Values
How a dot or a tie makes a note last longer than its plain value — and the rests that match every note exactly.
Explainer
A dot placed right after a note adds HALF the note's own value again. A dotted minim (2 beats, plus half of 2) lasts 3 beats.
A tie is a curved line joining two notes of the SAME pitch, adding their values together into one continuous sound — often used to carry a note smoothly across a barline.
Every note value has a matching rest of exactly the same length: a semibreve rest lasts 4 beats of silence, a crotchet rest lasts 1 beat, and so on.
Dots work on rests too — a dotted crotchet rest lasts 1½ beats, exactly like a dotted crotchet note.
Worked examples
A dotted minim
A minim (2 beats) with a dot adds half again (1 beat) — 3 beats in total.
A dotted crotchet
A crotchet (1 beat) with a dot adds half again (½ beat) — 1½ beats in total.
A tie across the barline
A crotchet tied into the first beat of the next bar sounds as one unbroken 2-beat note, even though it's written as two.