Video: How to Read Rests in Sheet Music

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Reading rests or silences in sheet music is just as important as being aware of the notes you are playing. Learn how to read the rests in sheet music with guidance from an experienced musician in this free video on reading sheet music.

Comments

aura738 Aug 02, 2008
Very good and more easy to understand, because you can watch the video many times. Thank you
aura738 Aug 02, 2008
Very good and more easy to understand, because you can watch the video many times. Thank you
violinjen Aug 02, 2008
Thanks again, great info in a very clear way!
violinjen Aug 02, 2008
Thanks again, great info in a very clear way!

Video Transcript

Hi! I’m Katie and I’m here on behalf of expertvillage.com to remind you to keep an eye out for rests. Just as it’s important to be aware of the notes that you are playing it is just as important to be aware of the silences or the rests. Younger or beginning musicians are often tempted to simple read the notes and then jump ahead to the next note but these rests are important because they account for the rest of the time in the measure and if you don’t acknowledge them and count them then you would start the next measure too soon. Here for example we see a piece that is in six eight time, so the eighth note gets the beat and there are six beats in the measure, here a dotted quarter would count for three beats one, two, three, here we have a full rest, a quarter rest excuse me four, five and eighth rest sixth and now all six beats in a measure are accounted for. When playing with an ensemble or some other group it is important to be aware of large spaces of rests, here this twelve means that there are twelve measures of rest and it’s the musicians responsibility to count all twelve measures so that he or she does not come in too early. So here for example the piece is in two four time, you would count out twelve measures of two beats each or twenty four beats, two more, another one, another and then the eighth note into the next measure, that’s all you need to know about rests.

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How to Read Rests in Sheet Music

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