Topmusicanswers
Stems are supposed to be 3.5 stave spaces tall. When the notehead is on the 2nd line outside the staff or beyond, the stem should extend to touch the center line. When the 3rd flag (or beam) is added to a note, the stem is lengthened.
How long should a note stem be?
Stems are generally one octave (three and a half spaces) in length. An exception to this rule occurs when notes are drawn two or more ledgers above or below staff. In this case the stem is drawn to meet the third line of the staff.
What is the note stem rule?
The stem rule tells us which direction the stem of a music note must be written on the music staff. You may have noticed that sometimes you see stems going up for some notes and going down for others. This is not just random. There are two compositional rules musicians follow when writing notes on the staff.
What is a beam in notes?
In musical notation, a beam is a horizontal or diagonal line used to connect multiple consecutive notes (and occasionally rests) to indicate rhythmic grouping. Only eighth notes (quavers) or shorter can be beamed. The number of beams is equal to the number of flags that would be present on an unbeamed note.
