eighth note
1
4.8
- noun
- /eɪtθ noʊt/
- Specialized
:
corchea
- The opening section was set in D minor in 4/4 meter and featured slurred eighth-note arpeggios.
- eighth note and quarter
- eighth notes and sixteenth
- eighth note rhythm
And it's the doubling of the eighth note triplets inside of that.
- And it's the doubling of the eighth note triplets inside of that.
- Essentially, it's the same eighth note triplet hi hat pattern that we've had.
Examples
-
In the verses, in the beginning, you hear me come in... always an eighth note behind the band.
-
While this group loves big band music, they have found swinging eighth notes and syncopation harder than they anticipated.
Academic text (1997) -
Add the eighth notes to the pattern on the board. Perform and track a third time.
Academic text (2015) -
On one song, the students were told to play eighth notes during a sustained triangle part.
Academic text (2006) -
Scale in eighth notes, then back to ostinato.
-
We counted the six eighth notes together and then played a few measures while tapping in six.
Academic text (1992) -
Many classes were stumped for a bit when they encountered the eighth notes on beat 4 in the second phrase.
Academic text (2012) -
Stephen suggests that they play the maracas in an eighth-note ostinato throughout the piece.
Academic text (2012) -
The student will read and clap a four-beat rhythm of quarter notes and eighth notes accurately and at the tempo provided.
Academic text (2015) -
In the song, the guitarist played a series of eighth notes that added rhythm to the melody.
Synonyms
A short musical note that lasts one eighth of a whole note
How Long
- Specialized
1
4.2
- Specialized
1
3.6
- Specialized
1
3.9
- Specialized
1
4.8
- Specialized
1
5.8
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a musical note with the time value of one eighth of a whole note' is directly derivable from combining 'eighth' (one of eight parts) with 'note' (a musical sound/notation); the numeric modifier signals a fractional duration so a learner who knows both words can infer it denotes a short-duration musical note. The number+noun composition is cross-linguistically common and follows straightforward compounding patterns, making the MWE transparent to B1 learners even if precise notational details (stem/flag) require specialist knowledge.
Etymology
Eighth note comes from the idea of dividing a whole musical sound into eight parts; imagine a whole cake cut into eight equal slices. The word eighth shows it is one of those pieces and note means a musical sound, so an eighth note is a short sound that lasts 'one-eighth' of the whole.