In music, a half note (American) or minim (British) is a note played for half the duration of a whole note (or semibreve) and twice the duration of a quarter note (or crotchet). It was given its Latin name (minima, meaning "least or smallest") because it was the shortest of the five note values used in early medieval music notation.

A half note (or minim) is half the value of a whole note. Therefore, 2 half notes add up to the same length as one whole note. The half notes symbol is a notehead with a stem:

Half notes are empty circles or an open head with a stem attached to the side. The duration of a half note is 2 beats. Notice that the half note is twice as long as the quarter note. Since a half note gets 2 beats, and remember that a quarter note gets 1 beat, that means that you will count and play a half note twice as long as quarter note.

Half Note (Minim) The second note we’ll look at is called a half note or minim. It’s similar to a whole note but has a line coming out of the right-hand side of its note head. This line is called a stem. The stem halves the value of the note, and so a half note has a value of two beats.