Duration (music)

The tone duration is one of the musical parameters that relate to the single tone or sound and gives its time interval.

The tone duration can be measured with the usual units for time ( ms, s, min, etc.) and described; in the conventional music notation, the different durations are, however, usually shown with different note values ​​that are not absolutely readable, but related to each other only in a relative manner.

As makeshift and timer to execute uniform durations, mechanical and later electronic or electro-mechanical metronomes have been used since the early 19th century.