Tap your foot. Each pulse of music can be thought of as having two parts. When tapping your foot to music, the first half of each pulse coincides with the point at which your foot touches the floor. This part of each beat is expressed as a number. The second part of each pulse is when you lift your foot off the floor, and is expressed with the word "and."
Write a whole note by drawing a slanted uncolored oval. A whole note lasts for the length of an entire measure of music. In common time, this is four beats. Writing a whole note indicates the note should be played and held for a count of four. Write this in words to illustrate the count by writing "one and, two and, three and, four and." The note would be played on the one and held until the "and" of the fourth count.
Write a half note like a whole note, but add a stem (a line) to the side of the note head to indicate the note count is half the value of a whole note. This means a half note is worth two counts. Another way to illustrate the count is by writing "one and, two and" to show the duration of the half note, with the note sounded on the count of one and lasting to the "and" of two.
Draw a half note and color in the note head black. This is a quarter note. The value of the quarter note is a single beat in common time, or a quarter of the measure. Write a quarter note as "one and," with the note beginning on one and lasting until "and."
Write a quarter note and draw a small curved tail at the top of the stem. This is an eighth note. Two or more eighth notes can also be written together, attached by a bar across the top of the notes and eliminating the tail. An eighth note is counted as half the value of a quarter note. To illustrate the count of eighth notes, write "one and, two and, three and, four and." A note is played on both the number and the "and," fitting two eighth notes within the span of a quarter note.
Write sixteenth notes like eighth notes, except there are two tails. They can be attached in the same way eighth notes can. The written count for these notes is "one e and uh," with the notes being played on each of the words. Four sixteenth notes will fit into the span of one quarter note.