Parts of a Musical Note – Notehead, Stem, Flag and Beam

All 8 parts on the diagram

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Single notes 5

Notehead The oval. Its place on the staff shows the pitch.
Stem A thin line joined to the notehead. It points up or down.
Flag One flag makes an eighth note. It is always on the right.
Dot It makes the note half as long again.
Accidental Here a sharp: it raises the note by a half step.

Notes together 3

Beam It joins eighth notes or shorter notes in place of flags.
Tie The two notes sound as one long note.
Ledger line A short extra line for a note above or below the staff.

How this list was compiled: Every name and meaning checked on 2026-09-30 against sources read that day, each name in at least two of them: (1) Open Music Theory, version 2 (Gotham, Gullings, Hamm, Hughes, Jarvis, Lavengood and Peterson, 2023, CC BY-SA), the Fundamentals chapters Notation of Notes, Clefs, and Ledger Lines, Notating Rhythm, and Half Steps, Whole Steps, and Accidentals, https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/chapter/notation-of-notes-clefs-and-ledger-lines/ , https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/chapter/notating-rhythm/ and https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/chapter/half-and-whole-steps/ (notehead, stem, beam and flag as the components of a note; a stem up sits on the right of the notehead and a stem down on the left; adding a stem, filling the notehead and adding a flag each halve the value; a dot adds half; a tie joins notes of the same pitch; accidentals are written to the left of the note and a sharp raises it a half step; ledger lines extend the staff); (2) Karl W. Gehrkens, Music Notation and Terminology (1914), public domain, Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19499 (a note has one, two or three parts, the head, the stem and the hook, which is also called a tail or cross-stroke; the hook is always on the right; grouped notes are joined by one cross-stroke; a dot makes the value half again as great; leger lines; the tie; accidentals); (3) Wikipedia, text only, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Note_value , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notehead , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stem_(music) , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beam_(music) , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dotted_note , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tie_(music) , https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ledger_line and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidental_(music) (notehead, stem, flags and beams; only eighth notes or shorter are beamed, with as many beams as flags; flags go to the right of the stem; the augmentation dot; the tie; ledger lines; accidentals). Hints and detail lines are in our own words. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-09-30 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

The parts of a musical note are the notehead, the stem and the flag. The drawing shows them enlarged, with the dot, accidental, beam, tie and ledger line that are written beside a note or join two.

Read the full guide

One note at a time

Numbers 1 to 3 are on the first note: the notehead, the stem and the flag. Number 4 is the dot after the second note. Number 5 is the accidental, here a sharp, before the third.

Notes together

Numbers 6 to 8 are in the second view: the beam joining two eighth notes, the tie joining two notes of the same pitch, and the ledger line through a note too low for the staff.

How the parts set the length

A whole note is an open notehead alone. Add a stem for a half note, fill in the head for a quarter note, and add a flag for an eighth note. Each step halves the length.

A stem that points up sits on the right of the notehead. A stem that points down sits on the left.
The flag is on the right of the stem, whichever way the stem points.

Questions and answers

What are the three parts of a note?

The notehead, the stem and the flag. The notehead is the oval, the stem is the thin line joined to it, and the flag is the curved stroke at the end of the stem. A whole note has only a notehead.

What is the tail on a music note called?

Most books now call it a flag. Older books call it a hook or a tail. An eighth note has one flag and a sixteenth note has two.

What is the difference between a flag and a beam?

A flag belongs to one note. When two or more eighth notes or shorter notes come together, a beam usually joins their stems in place of the flags. A note gets as many beams as it would have flags.

What does a dot after a note mean?

The dot makes the note half as long again. A dotted half note lasts as long as a half note and a quarter note together.