Dotted note

In Western musical notation, a dotted note is a note with a small dot written after it.^[a] In modern practice, the first dot increases the duration of the original note by half of its value. This makes a dotted note equivalent to the original note tied to a note of half the value – for example, a dotted half note is equivalent to a half note tied to a quarter note. Subsequent dots add progressively halved value, as shown in the example to the right.^[1][b]

Dotted notes and their equivalent durations. The curved lines, called ties, add the note values together.

The use of dotted notes dates back at least to the 10th century, but the exact amount of lengthening a dot provides in early music contexts may vary. Mensural notation uses a dot of division to clarify ambiguities about its context-dependent interpretation of rhythmic values, sometimes alongside the dot of augmentation as described above. In the gregorian chant editions of Solesmes, a dot is typically interpreted as a doubling of length (see also Neume).

Historical examples of music performance practices using unequal rhythms include notes inégales and swing. The precise performance of dotted rhythms can be a complex issue. Even in notation that employs dots, their performed values may be longer or shorter than the dot mathematically indicates, practices known as over-dotting or under-dotting.^[2]

Notation

If dotted note is on a space, the dot is placed in that space. If the note is on a line, the dot is placed in the space above. This principle also applies to notes on ledger lines.^[3]

The placement of dots need not follow this convention when space does not allow for it. For example, when dots apply to adjacent notes in a chord or notes in multiple voices.

Any note value can be dotted, as can rests of any value. If the rest is in its normal vertical position near the middle of the staff, dots are placed in the third staff space.^[4] Dotted rests are conventional in compound meters but can sometimes be used in simple meters as well.

In Baroque music, dotted notation was sometimes used to indicate triplet rhythms when the context makes it obvious.

Dots have been used across barlines, such as in H. C. Robbins Landon's edition of Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 70 in D major, but this usage is obsolete—a tie across the barline is used instead.^[5]

Double dotting

A fragment of the second movement of Joseph Haydn's String Quartet, Op. 74, No. 2, a theme and variations. The first note is double-dotted. Haydn's theme was adapted for piano by an unknown composer.

(3.7 KB MIDI file)

A double-dotted note is a note with two small dots written after it. Its duration is 1+3⁄4 times its basic note value. The double-dotted note is used less frequently than the single dotted note. Typically, as in the example to the right, it is followed by a note whose duration is one-quarter the length of the basic note value, completing the next higher note value. Before the mid-18th century, double dots were not used. Until then, in some circumstances, single dots could mean double dots.^[6]

In a French overture (and sometimes other Baroque music), notes written as single dotted notes are often interpreted to mean double-dotted notes,^[7] and the following note is commensurately shortened; see Historically informed performance.

Beyond two dots

"Triple dot" redirects here. For the punctuation mark that usually indicates an intentional omission of a word or phrase from the original text, see Ellipsis. For other uses, see Three dots (disambiguation).

(0 dots)

(1 dot)

(2 dots)

(3 dots)

Use of more than two dots is very uncommon;^[8] only triple and quadruple dotting have been used.^[9]

Triple-dotted notes, while very uncommon, can be found in the music of Richard Wagner and Anton Bruckner, especially in brass parts.^{[citation needed]} Their duration is 1+7⁄8 times the basic note value.

Triple-dotted notes also appear in Frédéric Chopin's Prelude in G major for piano, Op. 28, No. 3. The piece, in common time (⁴
₄), contains running semiquavers (sixteenth notes) in the left hand. Several times during the piece Chopin the right hand plays a triple-dotted minim (half note), lasting 15 semiquavers, simultaneously with the first left-hand semiquaver, then one semiquaver simultaneously with the 16th left-hand semiquaver.

Quadruple-dotted notes, with a duration of 1+15⁄16 times its basic note value, are extremely rare.^[9] A quintuple dotted note would be 1+31⁄32 times the original note's value.^[c] This becomes impractical notation due to the increasingly small gradation of the length of such a note (notes shorter than sixty-fourth notes are rare and at the limits of what is practical^[10]) and the fact that multiple dots obscure any intermediate divisions of the beat, making the rhythm more difficult to read.

Base note duration = 1

	Undotted	1 dot	2 dots	3 dots	4 dots
Lengthens	N/A (${\displaystyle 0}$)	1⁄2 ${\displaystyle =0.5}$	1⁄4 ${\displaystyle =0.25}$	1⁄8 ${\displaystyle =0.125}$	1⁄16 ${\displaystyle =0.0625}$
Decimal result	${\displaystyle 1}$	${\displaystyle 1.5}$	${\displaystyle 1.75}$	${\displaystyle 1.875}$	${\displaystyle 1.9375}$
Fractional result	${\displaystyle 1}$	${\displaystyle 1}$1⁄2	${\displaystyle 1}$3⁄4	${\displaystyle 1}$7⁄8	${\displaystyle 1}$15⁄16

See also

• Tuplet