Reading Music Lesson 1b: Rests

Reading Music Lesson 1b: Rests

Now that you've practiced the note values, let's go over their partner: rests. Rests are the way your music tells you when to not play notes. To make our life easier, all of the rests directly parallel the notes in name and value, allowing us to drop them into the same chart we've sorted the notes into:

? = ? =  whole (note/rest), 4 beats

? = ? = half (note/rest), 2 beats

? = ? = quarter (note/rest), 1 beat 

? = ? = eighth (note/rest), 1/2 beat 

? = ? = sixteenth (note/rest), 1/4 beat 

While dots technically can be used on any of these rests with the same effect as they have on the notes, typically we avoid "dotting" rests. Since two spaces beside each other would sound the same as one longer space, you can put two rests beside each other to fill the space required.

It's important to make sure you always count rests as meticulously as you would count notes, as they add just as much to the rhythm! Some frequent notes I give to students are Don't ignore the rests and Hold every note and rest for it's full value!