Part of learning how to play the violin is learning when to play long and short notes. This notation is important in making the rhythm of the song you are playing. When we refer to counts or beats that a note gets, think about a steady beat (like from a clock). If a note get 4 beats, it would be one note held for 4 ticks on the clock. When you're playing a song and have a note that gets 4 beats, you are not going to count 4 seconds (like on the clock) but 4 steady counts. Different songs have different speeds, but to understand and learn the counts of a specific note, keep thinking about the clock ticks.
Once you've learned all the note values you can have in a song or piece of music, you can start to learn how to play them by doing rhythm exercises. You'll play only one note, but play notes that are short and long by following the music.
Most beginner violin books have some rhythm exercises and they also introduce the different note values gradually. For my adults or more advanced students, I use this book I had in college called "Studying Rhythm" by Anne Carothers Hall (2nd edition). This book starts out with simple rhythm and then adds something different in each lesson. Clapping and counting the rhythm with this book is a great way to really develop your rhythmic skills.
If you'd like a great way to learn all this, there is a program called "How Anyone Can Learn to Read Music in Just 7 Days". This will teach you how to read music, timing, tempo, rhythm, and much more.
Rhythm may seem hard to teach oneself, so this is great for those learning to play the violin at home. You could easily spend three to six times more on private violin lessons to learn how to read music and all these other techniques.
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