Help understanding note types.

[stethorn]

Hi,

I have just started to learn to play the piano, I am self teaching my self due to lack of free time at the moment, however I am making sure I study at least 3 hours a day.  I have just ordered a Digital piano, which I am waiting delivery of, but have a keyboard to practice on.
I am trying to learn to read music,  and take a bit at a time and study it indepth.  I am struggling to get my head around note types, i.e full note,quarter note and how to play them. My understanding from what I have read is you play a quarter note a quarter of the time of a full note.  Questions I have so far are:
1/ Is a full note where you press and hold  the key and let the note ring out untill it stops ?
2/ Whats the best way of timing the otgher notes, i.e quarter notes.

Sorry if I have made this hard to understand,  but would greatly appreciate any help.

Thank you

Stephen

[Bob]

Depends on the meter, the grouping of beats.  If the meter is 4/4 (four beats per measure, quarter note gets one beat), then a whole note gets 4 counts and would end on the downbeat of then next beat 1.

All the notes are in proportion to each other. 
1 whole note = 2 half notes
1 half notes = 2 quarter notes
1 quarter = two 8ths
1 8th = 2 16ths

If you're just starting, the meter is usually 2, 3, or 4.  "Simple" meter divides each beat into two pieces -- an up and a down.  (Compounds divides beats up into three pieces.)  It's not always true, but the quarter usually gets one beat.  So if you count out 1, 2, 3, 4, 1,2, 3, 4  with a steady beat, a quarter note would get from the down of one beat to the down of the next beat.  A half note would get two beat.  Whole note four.


No free time, but you're scraping together three hours a day?  Haha.  Good job.

[stevebob]

Stephen, here are a few pointers based on what you’ve asked about.

Whole note, not “full note,”  is the terminology for the note with the duration of four quarter notes.

All notes (of any duration, i.e., not just whole notes) are generally held for their full value.  (I assume that’s what you meant by “press and hold  the key and let the note ring out until it stops.”)

Certain devices are often employed to assist in counting time when the music includes subdivisions of quarter notes.  A measure of eighth notes, for example, could be counted ONE-and TWO-and THREE-and FOUR-and; many people would count a measure of sixteenth notes as ONE-uh-and-uh TWO-uh-and-uh THREE-u-and-uh FOUR-uh-and-uh.

I hope this helps.  Congratulations on starting your musical journey!