Meet the Quarter Note
The quarter note is the most common note in music. It gets ONE beat — that means you play or sing it for exactly one beat, then move on to the next note.
What does a quarter note look like? It has a filled-in black oval (called the note head) with a stick going up or down (called the stem). It looks like a lollipop or a balloon on a string!
When you clap quarter notes, you clap once per beat: CLAP-CLAP-CLAP-CLAP. Nice and steady, one clap for each beat.
Musicians often say the word 'ta' for each quarter note when learning rhythms: ta-ta-ta-ta. Each 'ta' is one beat.
Most music is organized into groups of four beats called measures. In a measure of four quarter notes, you would clap: ta-ta-ta-ta (four claps, four beats). A whole song is made up of many measures, one after another!