Learn To Play Music

Learn to play music. This is lesson five of our simple guide to learning how to read music.

Lesson five is all about resting. Not in the sense that I need a bit of a lie down and sleep. more in the sense of resting between notes.

Rests are necessary in music. If the composer didn't tell you where to rest you wouldn't have time to draw breath and you would play all the notes immediately one after another.

As with notes, rests also come in differing amounts of duration. Given that, it makes sense that the rest periods should be the same length of duration as the notes. So if we have a whole note, we also have a whole rest. Make sense? Good. Lets begin.

Learn To Play Music - The Whole Rest

The whole rest is symbolised by a solid rectangle placed just below the staff line. Or if you prefer, at the top of a space on the staff. It tells you to rest for the duration of a whole note.

If we saw this symbol we would know that we should stop playing for a whole notes duration.

Learn To Play Music - The Half Rest

The half rest is just as simple as the whole rest except for one minor difference

Can you tell from looking at the picture above what the difference is? Correct. The rectangle sits on top of the line or at the bottom of the space. See, it's easy to learn to play music.

Upon seeing this we would naturally stop playing for the duration of a half note.

Learn To Play Music - The Quarter Rest

The quarter rest has a little more flair to it than that of the whole or half rests.

As the above picture shows it's basically a tilted rectangle with line extensions on the end and a crooked C attached at the bottom

As the name states we would rest for a quater notes duration.

Learn To Play Music - The Eighth Rest

The eighth rest above has the honour of looking somewhat like a walking stick.

Naturally when it is seen in music we stop for an eighth of a whole note.

Learn To Play Music - The Sixteenth Rest

How on earth do you stop for a sixteenth of any note? Well, you do. So here it is.

Sporting a similar look to the eighth rest but with an extra crook placed below the first one.

More Learn to Read Music

Rests aren't so difficult to understand when you learn to read music. Probably the hardest thing when you learn to play music is remembering which symbol is which.

Give yourself some time to take in the different symbols. Spend some time reading some beginner music and you'll soon have a grip on learning to play music

It shouldn't take you too much time to learn the above but do take your time if you feel you need to.

Theres a whole lot more to learning to play music and learning to read sheet music well

The information given should give you enough of a basic understanding to be able to play quite a few simple tunes

If you wish to take your skills further and learn to read sheet music well you really need to either consider getting a teacher or some quality software that will take you step by step through how to read music. Good luck.

Back To Lesson One Of How To Read Music - The Staff

Back To Lesson Two Of How To Read Sheet Music - Bars, Treble Clef and Time Signatures

Back To Lesson Three Of Learn To Read Music - Types Of Notes

Back to Lesson Four Of Learn To Read Sheet Music - Sharps, Flats & Naturals

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