In music, a whole note (American) or semibreve (the rest of the English, Italian or Portugese speaking world)'s a note represented by a hollow oval note head, like a half note (or minim), and no note stem (see Figure 1). Its length's typically equal to four beats in 4/4 time. Most other notes divide the whole note; half notes are played for one half the duration of the whole note, quarter notes (or crotchets) are each played for one quarter the duration, etc. A whole note lasts half as long as… (More on Semibreve)