Printable worksheet
Music math worksheet: note value math
Free printable music math worksheet: add note and rest values in beats, find the missing note and compare lengths. Three levels, answer key.
Music math worksheet: note value math
Sheet #
Name Date Score /
Answer key
Music math worksheet: note value math · Sheet #
About the Note Value Math Worksheet
The Note value math worksheet is a free tool that creates printable music math worksheets on note and rest values, so you can practise adding, subtracting and comparing note lengths in beats. It runs in your web browser with no sign-up, and nothing you enter is uploaded.
Each sheet comes with three difficulty levels and an answer key. You can use it for a quick warm-up or a longer practice session, and you can choose which note counts as one beat. Every sheet has its own number, so you can reopen or share the same questions later. If you are looking for free music math worksheets that you can print, this page gives you a new sheet each time you press the button.
How to use the Note value math worksheet
- Open the Difficulty menu and choose Easy, Medium or Hard.
- Open the Questions menu and choose 10 or 20.
- Open the One beat is a menu and choose Quarter note, Half note or Eighth note. Quarter note is the default.
- Open the Task menu and choose Mixed, Add them up, Find the missing value or Which is longer? Mixed is the default.
- Press New worksheet.
- Work through the questions and write each total in beats.
- Press Show answers to check your totals, or press Print to get the questions on page 1 and the answer key on page 2.
The settings and the sheet number are saved in the page address (the part after ?seed=). If you copy that address, you or someone else can open the same sheet with the same settings. To use a different beat note on the same values, change the One beat is a menu and compare the new totals.
The most useful tip is to change the beat setting, because the same note gets a different number of beats depending on which note counts as one beat. Try a sheet with a half-note beat or an eighth-note beat to see how the totals shift.
Remember that a dot adds half the note’s value, so a dotted quarter note is 1 1/2 beats. Rests count toward the total, so include them when you add up a row.
How do you count note values in beats?#
A beat is one unit of time that you choose. Every other note value is counted as a fraction or multiple of that beat. With a quarter-note beat, the values are:
| Value | Beats |
|---|---|
| Whole note (semibreve) | 4 |
| Half note (minim) | 2 |
| Quarter note (crotchet) | 1 |
| Eighth note (quaver) | 1/2 |
| Sixteenth note (semiquaver) | 1/4 |
Each value is half the one before it, so you can work out any value by halving or doubling.
Why does the beat note change?#
Different time signatures use different beat notes. A half note is two beats when the quarter note gets the beat, but it is one beat in 2/2. Converting a value from one beat note to another is the main skill this worksheet practises.
How do you find a missing note value?#
Add up the notes you can see, then subtract that total from the value on the other side of the equals sign. The leftover length is always one single note value. For example, if half note + ? = whole note, the whole note is 4 beats and the half note is 2 beats, so the missing value is 2 beats, which is a half note.
How do dots change a note’s length?#
A dot adds half of the note’s value. A dotted quarter note is 1 1/2 beats, because the quarter note is 1 beat and the dot adds half a beat.
How do you add note values in beats?#
To add note values in beats, convert each note into a number of beats first, then add those numbers. With the quarter note as one beat, a half note is 2 beats, an eighth note is 1/2 beat, and a sixteenth note is 1/4 beat.
- Choose a difficulty and which note counts as one beat, then press New worksheet.
- Turn every value into beats. A whole note is 4 quarter-note beats.
- Add the values, or subtract to find a missing one, and write the total in beats.
- Press Show answers to check each total.
For example, a half note, a quarter note and an eighth note add up to 2 + 1 + 1/2 = 3 1/2 beats. Rests count too, because a rest takes up time just like a note. Changing the beat note changes the numbers, so a half note is 2 beats when the quarter note is the beat, but 1 beat when the half note is the beat.