mike’s music pages

Fig. 1

This is the second lesson in a series about how to read music.

In our first lesson we learned about notes and how to count them. In this lesson you will learn more about notes, rests, and how to count.

What Are Rests?

Rests are periods of silence in music. Just as notes represent a sound of given duration, rests represent silence of a given duration. In the first lesson we learned about different types of notes. Well, for each type of note there is a corresponding type of rest. See Figure 1.

In the first lesson we talked about the time signature of 4/4. The top 4 means 4 beats in a measure, and the bottom 4 means that a quarter note gets one beat. So, in 4/4 time a quarter note gets 1 beat, a half note gets 2 beats, and a whole note gets 4 beats. An eighth note gets 1/2 beat, and a sixteenth note gets 1/4 beat. The equivalent rests are counted simularly.

“Notes Mean Sing and Rests Mean Be Quiet”

In 4/4 time a whole rest means that you should be quiet for 4 beats. Play the video below for a demonstration of whole notes and whole rests. The clicking sound is a metronome that clicks once for each beat.

Fast Tube by Casper

If a whole note gets 4 beats, then a half note gets 2 beats and a half rest means 2 beats of quiet. Play the video below for a demonstration of half notes and half rests.

Fast Tube by Casper

If a half note gets 2 beats, then a quarter note gets 1 beat and a quarter rest means 1 beat of silence. Play the video below for a demonstration of quarter notes and quarter rests.

Fast Tube by Casper

If a quarter note gets 1 beat, then an eighth note gets 1/2 beat. Play the video below for a demonstration of eighth notes and eighth rests. Note the counts under the notes. Since eighth notes and rests get only half of a beat, we count them by saying “1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and,” where the number  comes on the first half of the beat and the “and” comes on the second half of the beat.

Fast Tube by Casper

Finally, sixteenth notes get 1/4 beat, so it takes 4 sixteenth notes and/or rests to make 1 beat. In the demonstration video below, notice that the notes and rests are counted “1-e-an-a 2-e-an-a 3-e-an-a 4-e-an-a.” Counting this way breaks each beat into four equal parts.

Fast Tube by Casper

As you might have guessed, we can break a beat into even smaller fractions. There are 32nd notes and rests, 64th notes and rests and more. We won’t discuss them as they are not often used.

Send questions or comments.