What is a stem in music notes?

There are 3 main components that make up the shape of a musical note: 

  • Note Head
  • Stem
  • Flag

The stem is an important part of the composition of the note shape.

Only Whole note has no stem.

The note shapes have the appearance of Stem:

  • Half note,
  • Quarter note,
  • Eighth note,
  • Sixteenth Note,…
Stem

So, What is the direction of Stem?

There are 3 basic cases:

  • Notes that are higher than the middle line have a stem pointing down.
  • Similarly, Notes below the middle line have an upward stem.
  • If the notes are on the middle line, point up or down.

In addition, The direction of the stem depends on the group of notes. Example:

in the case of singing voices in a choir, the direction of the stem will show the path of each of those voices, which means that the stem is not dependent on the middle line.

Through the above article, I hope you understand a bit about the direction of the stem to help make music aesthetically pleasing and help the performer understand the convention.