Music Theory 101 - Dotted Notes, Rests, Time Signatures and More

From Espie Estrella, former About.com Guide

A dot that is placed after the note to indicate a change in the duration of a note. The dot adds half of the value of the note to itself. For example, a dotted half note gets 3 beats - value of a half note is 2, half of 2 is 1 so 2 + 1 = 3.

• dotted whole note = 6 beats
  
• dotted half note = 3
  
• dotted quarter note = 1 1/2
  
• dotted eighth note = 3/4
  
• dotted sixteenth note = 3/8