In
music, a
whole note (American) or
semibreve (British) is a
note represented by a hollow oval
note head, like a
half note (or
minim), and no
note stem (see Figure 1). Its length is equal to four
beats in 4/4
time. Most other notes are fractions of the whole note; half notes are played for one half the duration of the whole note,
quarter notes (or
crotchets) are each played for one quarter the duration, etc.