Big idea: In Lesson 1 we learned that all notes are fractions of the measure. Lesson 2 names those fractions and lets us hear each one: the whole note (the whole measure), the half, the quarter, the eighth, and the sixteenth. Same three instruments, same three kids, but now we know exactly how big each note is. Then we learn to draw them.
In Lesson 1 we cut the measure into halves, quarters, and eighths. Now we give those cuts their real names and add two more family members, the biggest and the smallest:
The fractions are the names. A half note is literally half the measure, an eighth note is one-eighth of it. Bigger fraction = bigger slice = longer sound.
Lesson 1's grid had 16 cells for one measure (sixteenth notes). Now we start with a simpler view: 8 cells, one measure, one cell per eighth note. Sixteen is just this grid split in half, which is exactly what the Split button does in the studio below.
Here is the whole note family as a playable demo on the eighth-note grid. The three of us play together, same as class, each on their own instrument: G kicks, J claps, M taps. Press an example and listen to how the slices get smaller each time. When you get to sixteenth notes, press Split cells in half to see them.
One whole note fills the measure: one hit, and it holds for four beats.
Try this: switch examples and count out loud with the music. Whole: "one". Half: "one-two, three-four". Quarters: "1-2-3-4". Eighths: "1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and". Sixteenths are a tongue twister, that is the point.
Rests are just as real as notes: a rest is a beat of silence that still takes up its slice of the measure. In Lesson 1 we rested on 2 and 4. Try it again here, but notice the slices: a whole rest silences the whole measure, a half rest silences half the measure, and so on.
Select the Play + Rest example below. We hit on 1 and 3, stay silent on 2 and 4, and count the silent beats just as loud in our heads. The music keeps its same speed, the silence is part of it.
When musicians write music down, each note gets its own symbol. Here is the note family as it looks on paper. The trick: a note with a hollow head is worth more time than a note with a filled head, and little flags on the stem cut the note in half each time.
Spot the pattern: the whole note is a hollow oval with nothing else. Add a stem and it becomes a half note. Fill the head and it is a quarter. Each flag on the stem cuts its value in half: one flag is an eighth, two flags a sixteenth.
Rests have symbols too. They are small but mighty: a whole-measure rest looks like a bar hanging from a line, a half-measure rest sits on a line, and the skinnier notes get little squiggles and flags of their own.