Sixteenth note: Difference between revisions

[[image:Sixteenth note run.pngsvg|thumb|right|'''Figure 2.''' Four 16th notes beamed together.]]

In [[music]], a '''16th1/16, sixteenth note'''<!-- '16th note' is wrong; it's a fraction not an ordinal --> ([[American English|American]]) or '''semiquaver''' ([[British English|British]]) is a [[Musical note|note]] played for half the duration of an [[eighth note]] (quaver), hence the namenames. It is the equivalent of the semifusa in [[mensural notation]], first found in 15th-century notation .{{harvr|Morehen and Rastall|2001GroveDict2001_Semiquaver}}.

Sixteenth notes are notated with an oval, filled-in [[note head]] and a straight [[note stem]] with two [[flag (note)|flag]]s. (see Figure 1). A similarsingle sixteenth note is always stemmed with flags, while two or more are usually beamed in groups.{{r|Gerou1996_211}} A corresponding symbol is the '''16thsixteenth rest''' (or '''semiquaver rest'''), which denotes a silence for the same duration. As with all notes with stems, 16thsixteenth notes are drawn with stems to the right of the notehead, facing up, when they are below the middle line of the [[musical staff]] (or on the middle line, in vocal music). When they are on or above the middle line (in instrumental music) or above it, they are drawn with stems on the left of the note head, facing down. Flags are always on the right side of the stem, and curve to the right. On stems facing up, the flags start at the top and curve down; for downward facing stems, the flags start at the bottom of the stem and curve up. When multiple 16thsixteenth notes or eighth notes (or 32ndthirty-second notes, etc.) are next to each other, the flags may be connected with a [[Beam (music)|beam]], like the notes in Figure 2. Note the similarities in notating 16thsixteenth notes and [[eighth note]]s. Similar rules apply to smaller divisions such as [[thirty-second note|32nd note]]s (demisemiquavers) and [[sixty-fourth note|64th note]]s (hemidemisemiquavers).

The note derives from the ''semifusa'' in [[mensural notation]]. However, ''semifusa'' also designates the modern 64thsixty-fourth note in Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese.

* [[List of musical notationsymbols]]