Half note

It was given its Latin name (minima, meaning "least or smallest") because it was the shortest of the five note values used in early medieval music notation.Half rests are drawn as filled-in rectangles sitting on top of the middle line of the musical staff, although in polyphonic music the rest may need to be moved to a different line or even a ledger line.The Catalan, French, and Spanish names (blanca, blanche, meaning "white") derive from the fact that the minima was the shortest unfilled note in mensural white notation, which is true of the modern form as well.The form in the earlier black notation resembles the modern quarter note (crotchet).The Greek, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean names mean "half", and in Greek, the modern word (miso – μισό) and older (imisi – ήμισι) are used.
Figure 1: A half note with stem facing up, a half note with stem facing down, and a half rest
Whole note Half note Quarter note Eighth note Sixteenth note Thirty-second note
Comparison of duple note values: whole note = 2× half note , etc.
Half note (disambiguation)whole notequarter noteearly medieval music notationnoteheadnote stemmusical staffpolyphonicledger lineloan translationList of musical symbolsGrove Music Onlinenote valuesOctuple whole note (maxima)Quadruple whole note (longa)Double whole note (breve)Whole note (semibreve)Quarter note (crotchet)Eighth note (quaver)Sixteenth note (semiquaver)Thirty-second note (demisemiquaver)Sixty-fourth note (hemidemisemiquaver)Hundred twenty-eighth note (semihemidemisemiquaver)Two hundred fifty-sixth note (demisemihemidemisemiquaver)Dotted noteGrace noteSwung noteTremoloTuplet