Sixteenth Notes: How to Count, Play & Practice
A sixteenth note lasts a quarter of a beat, so four fit in each beat and sixteen fill a bar of 4/4, counted 1 e and a.
Hear Sixteenth Notes: Count Along
Press play and say the counts under the highlighted squares. Dashed squares are silent.
Four bars play, then it stops. The tempo shown is the beat, not the grid step.
Sixteenth Notes Explained
A sixteenth note (semiquaver) lasts one quarter of a beat in 4/4 time, with four sixteenth notes fitting into one quarter-note beat. They produce rapid, driving rhythmic motion and are essential in fast passages, fills, and ornamental figures. Sixteenth notes demand precise coordination and are a major milestone for developing technical speed.
How to Count
Count '1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a, 3-e-and-a, 4-e-and-a', four syllables per beat. The '1' and '2' are downbeats, the 'and' is the upbeat, and 'e' and 'a' are the subdivisions between them. Start very slowly and ensure all four syllables are perfectly even before increasing speed.
Sixteenth Notes in Real Music
Sixteenth notes are where music starts to shimmer. Bach's Prelude in C major from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I is nothing but broken chords in continuous sixteenths, sixteen per bar, and the entire expressive effect comes from harmony changing underneath an unvarying stream of notes. Vivaldi's Summer from The Four Seasons uses the same device violently, with running sixteenth-note figures depicting the storm. Funk turns the sixteenth note into a grid rather than a stream: James Brown's band placed guitar chops, hi-hat and bass on selected sixteenths and left the rest empty, so what you hear is a pattern of holes as much as a pattern of hits. Bluegrass banjo rolls run a near-constant sixteenth-note pulse under the melody, and thrash metal down-picks sixteenths to get its mechanical drive. The performer's note is that speed is not the hard part; evenness is. Most players unconsciously group sixteenths in pairs, making the e and the a shorter than the numbered beat and the and. Say the full count out loud, 1 e and a, 2 e and a, while playing slowly, then move the metronome click onto the e only, or the a only, and see whether you can still find it. If you can, your subdivision is genuinely even. Build tempo in small increments rather than leaping to performance speed.
Common Mistakes
- Squeezing the 'e' and 'a' too close together, making the rhythm sound like dotted-eighth-sixteenth pairs instead of even sixteenths.
- Tensing up the hands, jaw, or tongue at faster tempos, which causes uneven articulation.
- Losing track of which sixteenth note within the beat you are on, especially when mixing with other note values.
Practice Exercise
Set a metronome to 50 BPM. Play four sixteenth notes per beat on a single pitch, counting '1-e-and-a' aloud. After one minute, bump the tempo up by 4 BPM and repeat. Continue until you find the tempo where your evenness breaks down, then practice just below that threshold.
Suggested metronome tempos: Slow: 40 BPM · Medium: 70 BPM · Fast: 120 BPM
Related Time Signatures
Related Rhythm Patterns
Common Genres
FAQ
How many sixteenth notes fit in one measure of 4/4?
Sixteen. There are four sixteenth notes per quarter-note beat, and four beats per measure, giving 4 x 4 = 16 sixteenth notes per measure.
How do you count sixteenth notes?
Use the syllables '1-e-and-a, 2-e-and-a, 3-e-and-a, 4-e-and-a.' Each beat gets four evenly spaced syllables. Start slowly and speak the syllables before playing them on your instrument.
How many sixteenth notes are in one beat?
Four. Each beat divides into four equal sixteenth notes, counted 1 e and a. That means two sixteenth notes take the same time as one eighth note, and sixteen fill a full bar of 4/4.
What is the difference between sixteenth notes and thirty-second notes?
Thirty-second notes are half the length of sixteenth notes, so eight fit in a beat instead of four. Sixteenths carry two beams or flags, thirty-seconds carry three, and thirty-seconds are usually reserved for flourishes.
How fast should I practice sixteenth notes?
Start slow, around 40 BPM, so each sixteenth is clearly audible and you can check evenness. Build to 70 BPM for most repertoire, and only push toward 120 BPM once every note sounds the same length.
Related References
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