Quarter note

A quarter note (American) or crotchet (British, from the sense 'hook') is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Often, musicians will say that a crotchet is one beat, but this is not always correct, as the beat is indicated by the time signature of the music; a quarter note may or may not be the beat. Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem. The stem usually points upwards if it is below the middle line of the stave or downwards if it is on or above the middle line. However, the stem direction may differentiate more than one part. The head of the note also reverses its orientation in relation to the stem. (See image.)

Overview

In Unicode, the symbol is U+2669 (♩).

A quarter note/crotchet with stem pointing up, a quarter note with stem pointing down, and a quarter rest

Four quarter notes. Quarter notes are the smallest note value not beamed together.

Comparison of duple note values ( = 2×, etc.).

A related value is the quarter rest (or crotchet rest). It denotes a silence of the same duration as a quarter note. It typically appears as the symbol , plus, occasionally, as the older symbol .^[1][2]

The note derives from the semiminima of mensural notation. The word crotchet comes from Old French crochet, meaning 'little hook', diminutive of croc, 'hook', because of the hook used on the note in black notation. However, because the hook appeared on the eighth note (or quaver) in the later white notation, the modern French term croche refers to an eighth note.

It is played for half the length of a half note and twice that of an eights note . It is one beat in a bar of 4/4. The term quarter note is a calque (loan translation) of the German term Viertelnote. The names of this note (and rest) in most languages are calqued from the same source:

Language	note name	rest name
Arabic	السوداء	سكتة السوداء
Bulgarian	четвъртинка	четвъртинка пауза
Catalan	negra	silenci de negra
Chinese	四分音符 (pinyin: sìfēn yīnfú)	四分休止符 (pinyin: sìfēn xiūzhǐfú)
Croatian	četvrtinka	četvrtinska pauza
Czech	čtvrťová nota	čtvrťová pauza
Danish	fjerdedelsnode	fjerdedelspause
Dutch	kwartnoot	kwartrust
Finnish	neljäsosanuotti	neljäsosatauko
French	noire	soupir
Galician	negra	silencio de negra
German	Viertelnote	Viertelpause
Greek	tetarto (τέταρτο)	pausi tetartou (παύση τετάρτου)
Italian	semiminima	pausa di semiminima
Japanese	4分音符	4分休符
Korean	4분음표(四分音標 sabun eumpyo)	4분쉼표(四分-標 sabun swimpyo)
Norwegian	fjerdedelsnote	fjerdedelspause
Polish	ćwierćnuta	pauza ćwierćnutowa
Portuguese	semínima	pausa de semínima
Russian	четвертная нота	четвертная пауза
Serbian	četvrtin(k)a / четвртин(к)а	četvrtinska pauza/ четвртинска пауза
Slovak	štvrťová nota	štvrťová pomlčka
Spanish	negra	silencio de negra
Swedish	fjärdedelsnot	fjärdedelspaus
Turkish	dörtlük nota	dörtlük es
Thai	โน๊ตตัวดำ	ตัวหยุดตัวดำ

The Galician, Catalan, French, and Spanish names for the note (all of them meaning "black") derive from the fact that the semiminima was the longest note to be colored in mensural white notation, which is true as well of the modern form.

The Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Serbian and Slovak names mean "quarter" (for the note) and "quarter's pause" (for the rest).

Notes

1. Examples of the older symbol are found in English music up to the late 20th century, e.g. W. A. Mozart Requiem Mass, vocal score ed. W. T. Best, pub. London: Novello & Co. Ltd. 1879
2. Rudiments and Theory of Music Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London 1958. I,33 and III,25. The former shows both forms without distinction, the latter the "old" form only. The book was the standard theory manual in the UK up until at least 1975. The "old" form was taught as a manuscript variant of the printed form.