Dotted note
A dot just after a note makes it half as long again. A dotted half note lasts as long as three quarter notes; a dotted quarter note as long as three eighth notes.
Easily confused with
How to read it
The dot adds half the note’s own value. A second dot adds half as much as the first, so a double-dotted note lasts seven-quarters of its plain length. Rests take dots in the same way. A tie can give the same length: a half note tied to a quarter note lasts as long as a dotted half note.
Look-alikes
Where the dot sits changes what it means. After a note, it lengthens it. Above or below the head, it is a Staccato mark, and the note is played short and detached.
The pricked note
Stainer and Barrett’s dictionary (1898) records that the dot was once called the point of addition (punctus), and a dotted note a “pricked note”.
Read next
- Next in Music symbolsWhole restA whole rest is a small filled block hanging below the fourth line of the staff. It marks a silence as long as a whole note, and is also used for a whole measure of silence in almost any time signature.
- The same shape in African flagsFlag of EthiopiaEthiopia’s flag is green, yellow and red in equal horizontal stripes with a blue disc in the centre holding a yellow star of equal lines with yellow rays. Ethiopia’s Flag Proclamation makes the green labour, fertility and development, the yellow hope, justice and equality, and the red sacrifice and heroism for freedom and equality; the blue disc is peace and the star the unity of Ethiopia’s nations, nationalities and peoples.
More music symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with circles or lines.
Sources
- Music Notation and Terminology, Karl W. Gehrkens, 1914, A. S. Barnes Company (Project Gutenberg), Chapter V, §49–50, §54
- Primer of Facts about Music, M. G. Evans, 1909, Theodore Presser Co. (Internet Archive, University of Toronto), Q. 19
- Music Theory for the 21st-Century Classroom: Dots and Ties, Robert Hutchinson, section 4.3, University of Puget Sound, Section 4.3
- Elson's Music Dictionary, Louis C. Elson, 1905, Oliver Ditson Company (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library), Signs
- Stainer and Barrett's Dictionary of Musical Terms, John Stainer and W. A. Barrett, new and revised edition, 1898, Novello (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library), Dot
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. How we research
Added .