In
music
Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...
, a thirty-second note (American) or demisemiquaver (British) is a
note played for of the duration of a
whole note (or ''semibreve''). It lasts half as long as a
sixteenth note (or ''semiquaver'') and twice as long as a
sixty-fourth (or ''hemidemisemiquaver'').
Thirty-second notes are notated with an oval, filled-in
note head and a straight
note stem
In musical notation, stems are the "thin, vertical line (geometry), lines that are directly connected to the notehead, otehead." Stems may point up or down. Different-pointing stems indicate the voice (music), voice for polyphonic music writ ...
with three flags or
beams. A single thirty-second note is always stemmed with flags, while two or more are usually beamed in groups.
[Gerou, Tom (1996). ''Essential Dictionary of Music Notation'', p.211. Alfred. ]
As with all notes with stems, thirty-second notes are drawn with stems to the right of the notehead, extending up, when they are below the middle line of the
musical staff. When they are on or above the middle line, they are drawn with stems on the left of the note head, extending down. Flags are always on the right side of the stem, and curve to the right. On stems extending up, the flags start at the top and curve down; for downward extending stems, the flags start at the bottom of the stem and curve up. When multiple thirty-second notes or
eighth note
180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest.
180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together.
An eighth note ( American) or a quaver ( British) is a musical note pla ...
s (or
sixteenths, etc.) are next to each other, the flags may be connected with a
beam. Similar rules apply to smaller divisions such as
sixty-fourth notes.
A related symbol is the thirty-second rest or demisemiquaver rest (shown to the right), which denotes a silence for the same duration as a thirty-second note.
See also
*
List of musical symbols
Musical symbols are marks and symbols in musical notation that indicate various aspects of how a piece of music is to be performed. There are symbols to communicate information about many musical elements, including Pitch (music), pitch, Duration ...
References
Note values
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