Quarter note

A quarter note (crotchet) with stem pointing up, a quarter note with stem pointing down, and a quarter rest
Four quarter notes
Comparison of duple note values: whole note = 2×half note, etc.
Drum pattern, quarter notes on bass and snare,
accompanied by ride patterns of various
duple lengths from whole note to 128th (all at quarter note=60)
Audio content icon1ⓘ 2ⓘ 4ⓘ 8ⓘ
16ⓘ 32ⓘ 64ⓘ 128ⓘ

A quarter note (AmE) or crotchet (BrE) (/ˈkrɒtʃɪt/) is a musical note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note (or semibreve). Quarter notes are notated with a filled-in oval note head and a straight, flagless stem. The stem usually points upwards if it is below the middle line of the staff, and downwards if it is on or above the middle line. An upward stem is placed on the right side of the notehead, a downward stem is placed on the left (see image). The Unicode symbol is U+2669 (♩).

A quarter rest (or crotchet rest) denotes a silence of the same duration as a quarter note or crotchet. It is notated with the symbol . In some older music it was notated with symbol .