Now let's take a look at this note. It looks like a half note, but it's got something extra, this dot right here. When you see a half note with a dot two, it's right. What you're looking at is a dotted half note. The dot adds one count to the half note. So a half note has a value of two counts of music, we already know that.

Add one more count because of the dot, and you get three counts of music. A dotted half note has a value of three counts of music. And if we look at the time signature at the beginning of this piece, we see that it tells us we're going to have three counts in each measure. You might be wondering what that bottom four tells us for now. Just assume that the bottom number is going to be four. In almost every easy piano piece that you'll be playing.

The bottom number does tell us something. But the topic of that bottom number can get pretty detailed and advanced. And I don't really want to throw too much information at you in this course because you do need time to get comfortable with the basics first. For now, just know that that four does mean something. But it's not something that you need to know at the beginning stages of piano playing. Now I'm going to play and count the beats.

If you want you can join me or watch me one time through 123123123 a pause here and talk about this. See that half note with a dot dotted half note three counts and we move on that measure is full 1231 2312 312-312-3123 repeat 123 1-231-231-2312 312-312-3123 now if you did that with me, great if you didn't back up and play and count the beats out loud with me. When you're ready, pause the video and play and count out loud. Making sure that you keep on nice steady beat. In this lesson, you'll learn about the dotted half note, which gets three counts of music, and you put that knowledge to use by playing and counting this piece. Congratulations.