Lesson 1.4 - Beaming Notes

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When quavers and semiquavers are written on their own, they have a small curly tail (or two - for semiquavers) to the right of the note stem. When they are joined together in groups, the 'curly tail' is replaced by a beam, or double beam for semiquavers.

Quavers and semiquavers can also be joined together in the same 'beam' as shown in the examples below.

Notice also the direction of the stems. The rules for this have been discussed in an earlier lesson, but when there is more than one note joined together in a beam some compromise needs to be found. If there is a majority, i.e. two go up and one down, then the majority wins (they all go up). If there is an even number, eg. two up two down then the ones furthest from the middle win.

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