What Are Running Minims?

American musicians often speak of “running eighths” or “running sixteenths.” They’re referring to a fast passage consisting almost exclusively of notes all having the same, short duration. (The British, by the way, call eighth notes “quavers” and sixteenths “semi-quavers.”) Here’s a famous passage containing running sixteenths:

(If you want to hear what this sounds like, click here.)
If you look at the logo for this blog, you’ll notice that I notated the passage in half notes—what the British call “minims.” The duration of a half note, as you may know, is eight times that of a sixteenth. When the passage above played eight times as slow, it sounds like this.
Like running minims, I’m not in a hurry. If I never run fast (and I never have), that’s okay.