A beam in musical notation

Musical notation

Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...

 is a thick line frequently used to connect multiple consecutive eighth notes (quavers), or notes of shorter value

Note value

In music notation, a note value indicates the relative duration of a note, using the color or shape of the note head, the presence or absence of a stem, and the presence or absence of flags/beams/hooks/tails....

 (indicated by two or more beams), and occasionally rests. Beamed notes or rests are groups of notes and rests connected by a beam; the use of beams is called beaming.

Span and grouping

The span of beams indicates the rhythmic grouping, usually determined by the time signature. In modern practice beams may span across rests in order to make rhythmic groups clearer. Notes lasting a quarter note

Quarter note

A quarter note or crotchet is a note played for one quarter of the duration of a whole note . Often people will say that a crotchet is one beat, however, this is not always correct, as the beat is indicated by the time signature of the music; a quarter note may or may not be the beat...

 (crotchet) or longer cannot be beamed.

In vocal music

Vocal music

Vocal music is a genre of music performed by one or more singers, with or without instrumental accompaniment, in which singing provides the main focus of the piece. Music which employs singing but does not feature it prominently is generally considered instrumental music Vocal music is a genre of...

, beams are traditionally used only to connect notes sung to the same syllable. Since this often breaks the rhythmic grouping the rhythms are more difficult to read. In modern engraving practice it is commonplace to beam notes regardless of the words, and to add slurs to emphasize where multiple notes are sung to the same syllable.

Positioning

Notes joined by a beam usually have all the stems pointing in the same direction (up or down). The average pitch of the notes is used to determine the direction - if the average pitch is below the middle staff-line, the stems and beam(s) usually go above, otherwise they usually go below.

In music engraving

Music engraving

Music engraving is the art of drawing music notation at high quality for the purpose of mechanical reproduction. The term music copying is almost equivalent, though music engraving implies a higher degree of skill and quality, usually for publication. Plate engraving, the process the term...

there are various more complex rules governing the positioning and angle of beams.