Lesson 17: Rests and Silence

Count rests as carefully as notes.
Play a piece in which the silence is half the music.

Lesson 6 — note values.

Rests and their notation.
Silence as music.

The rests are part of the melody.

Rests have the same durations as notes: whole, half, quarter, eighth. They are not pauses to gather yourself — they are silences that count, and beginners almost always cut them short. A quarter rest is a full beat of silence; if you play the next note half a beat early, the rhythm has changed.

Rests are also breathing opportunities. A rest at a phrase end is when you breathe; a rest in the middle is the music asking you to wait.

The rest is a silent beat. Count one-two-three-four; the third beat is a rest, not a note. The bar still has four beats.

Eighth, quarter, half rests in succession. The bars still sum to four beats each.

Play: a piece full of breath

The melody below has a rest at the end of every phrase. The rests are where the music thinks — and where you breathe. Cut a rest short and the phrase tumbles into the next one.

Now play these

Hot Cross Buns: The original has implicit rests between phrases. Make them explicit — a clear quarter-rest beat between each phrase.
Branle Simple: A Renaissance dance whose phrase structure is built around clearly counted rests.
Silent Night: The breath spaces at the line endings are rests — treat them as such.

When the rests in your playing are as clean as the notes — full value, exactly placed — move on to Lesson 18.