nuotit

Nuotit is the Finnish word for musical notes, the basic symbols used in Western musical notation to indicate pitch and duration. In sheet music, notes are written on a five-line staff and played in the order they appear. The pitch of a note is determined by its vertical position on the staff and by accidentals such as sharps, flats, and naturals. The duration of a note is indicated by its head and stem shape: whole note (semibreve), half note (minim), quarter note (crotchet), eighth note (quaver), and sixteenth note (semquaver). Dots extend duration, and ties connect notes of the same pitch to form longer values. In addition to notes, rests indicate silence.

Notes are grouped into measures by barlines, and a time signature sets how many beats are in a measure and which note value counts as one beat. The clef (treble, bass, etc.) positions the staff to accommodate different pitch ranges; key signatures indicate the scale’s sharps or flats for a piece’s tonal center. Accidentals alter pitch for the scope of a measure.

Nuotit thus serve as the primary means of encoding melodies and harmonies in written music, from simple folk tunes to complex orchestral scores. The term also encompasses the concept of notes as musical sound events independent of notation.