12: The Sound of Silence
Take a Rest
Ovid said that silence is strength. If that’s true, you’ll be much stronger
after this chapter because it’s all about silence.
Silence in music is as important as sound, and of course we crafty
humans have invented a way to show this silence in music. Rests.
Rest lengths and rest names are the same as the note lengths you learned
in the last chapter. The three you’ll learn in this chapter are whole rests,
half rests, and quarter rests.The Rests of the Story
Whole rests are 4 beats long, and look like this:
Half rests are 2 beats long, and look like this:Quarter rests are one beat long and look like this:Whole or Half, Hole or Hat
Whole rests and half rests look very much the same, and they can be
easily confused with each other. Here’s a way to remember which is
which.
The whole rest, looks like a hole in the ground, like so:The half rest, looks like a hat (I know, half and hat don’t sound the
same, but work with me here):