These movements of the bow, long and short, fast and slow, were the magic of his fiddling. Rhythm Musical sounds, too, can be long or short and fast or slow. Long, short, fast, and slow are terms which are related to time, and music takes place in time. That part of music, the part that concerns time, is called rhythm. Notes Our music notation system uses notes.
Notes are symbols which indicate the pitch and rhythm of sounds.
Since we're concerned here with rhythm, we'll begin with a description of the rhythmic aspects of notes. One whole note equals two half notes. One half note equals two quarter notes. One whole note equals four quarter notes. Well, you get the idea.