Rests: Counting the Silence

Every note has a matching rest

Half rest = a hat Whole rest = a hole

The half rest sits on top of the line like a hat. The whole rest is heavier, so it hangs down under the line like a hole.

Rests in a bar of 4/4

Each bar below mixes notes and rests. Counts for the rests are in brackets: keep counting them in your head while you stay silent. Press Play to hear four clicks to count you in, then the bar.

Solid bars are notes · dashed bars are rests · 80 beats per minute

How to play a rest

1. Keep your foot tapping through the rest. The beat never stops, even when you do.
2. Count the rest in your head, or whisper it. In the chart those counts are in brackets, like (2).
3. Stop the sound. On bass, a rest means the string must go quiet: ease off your fretting finger, or touch the string with a spare finger to mute it.
4. Come back in on time. The note after a rest lands exactly on its count, not early and not late.

Good to know

• A whole rest sits in the middle of the bar. It also means "rest for the whole bar" in any time signature, not just 4/4.
• The eighth rest looks like a 7. The sixteenth rest is the same shape with a second flag.
• Reggae is full of rests. The guitar skank rests on every beat and plays on the "&", like the eighth rest example above. In the one drop drum beat, nothing hits on beat 1 and the kick and snare land together on beat 3.
• Coming later: dotted notes, which add half again to a note's length.

Practice: how many beats of silence?