There is even one more way of looking at this to break down dots next to notes that could be potentially easier for students. I always encourage my students to think of dots next to notes as adding the value of the next faster note because it makes it easier to figure out. The same rule applies for all notes with a dot next to them. A half note with a dot next to it would mean you have a half note plus the value of a quarter note. So a dot next to a whole note would mean that you would have a whole note plus the value of a half note. So knowing this information, what would a dot do to each these notes? Luckily we have another chart here that will help explain it: This chart should help explain things a bit more:

For example, if you have a whole note, it’s the value of two half notes. This is really simple if you know all your notes because each note is half the value of the next note. I typically teach students what these dots mean using the following phrase: a dot after a note adds the value of the next faster note. Luckily, there is a simpler way to explain this. With a little dissection this is easy enough to understand but trying to teach this to younger students can be a real challenge. If you add a dot to a note it adds half the value of the note. The real question is how much does it change the length of a note? There is an explanation that many teachers and pianist use that might seem a little confusing. The short answer is that these dots change the length of a note.

To preface, we are not talking about staccato notes (which have dots above or below notes) but dots next to notes that look like this: You’ve probably seen this in music and you might have wondered exactly what a dot does to a note.

In the end piano notes