Skip to content Skip to navigation

Connexions

You are here: Home » Content » Duration: Rest Length

Navigation

Lenses

What is a lens?

Definition of a lens

Lenses

A lens is a custom view of Connexions content. You can think of it as a fancy kind of list that will let you see Connexions through the eyes of organizations and people you trust.

What is in a lens?

Lens makers point to Connexions materials (modules and collections), creating a guide that includes their own comments and descriptive tags about the content.

Who can create a lens?

Any individual Connexions member, a community, or a respected organization.

What are tags? tag icon

Tags are descriptors added by lens makers to help label content, attaching a vocabulary that is meaningful in the context of the lens.

This content is ...

Affiliated with (What does "Affiliated with" mean?)

This content is either by members of the organizations listed or about topics related to the organizations listed. Click each link to see a list of all content affiliated with the organization.
  • OrangeGrove display tagshide tags

    This module is included inLens: Florida Orange Grove Textbooks
    By: Florida Orange GroveAs a part of collection:"Reading Music: Common Notation"

    Click the "OrangeGrove" link to see all content affiliated with them.

    Click the tag icon tag icon to display tags associated with this content.

  • Featured Content display tagshide tags

    This module is included inLens: Connexions Featured Content
    By: ConnexionsAs a part of collection:"Understanding Basic Music Theory"

    Comments:

    ""Understanding Basic Music Theory" is an introduction to music theory by one of Connexions' most popular authors. In addition to the basic concepts of music theory, this course and book offer a […]"

    Click the "Featured Content" link to see all content affiliated with them.

    Click the tag icon tag icon to display tags associated with this content.

Also in these lenses

  • Beginning Guitar display tagshide tags

    This module is included inLens: joy Martin's Lens
    By: joy MartinAs a part of collection:"Beginning Guitar"

    Click the "Beginning Guitar" link to see all content selected in this lens.

    Click the tag icon tag icon to display tags associated with this content.

  • musicBasics

    This module is included inLens: Music Basics
    By: Chinwei HuAs a part of collection:"Understanding Basic Music Theory"

    Click the "musicBasics" link to see all content selected in this lens.

  • TEC Music Theory Resources display tagshide tags

    This module is included inLens: TEC Music Theory resources
    By: Cynthia FaisstAs a part of collections:"Understanding Basic Music Theory", "Music Fundamentals 2: Rhythm and Meter", "Reading Music: Common Notation"

    Click the "TEC Music Theory Resources" link to see all content selected in this lens.

    Click the tag icon tag icon to display tags associated with this content.

Recently Viewed

This feature requires Javascript to be enabled.

Tags

(What is a tag?)

These tags come from the endorsement, affiliation, and other lenses that include this content.

Duration: Rest Length

Module by: Catherine Schmidt-Jones. E-mail the author

User rating (How does the rating system work?)
Ratings

Ratings allow you to judge the quality of modules. If other users have ranked the module then its average rating is displayed below. Ratings are calculated on a scale from one star (Poor) to five stars (Excellent).

How to rate a module

Hover over the star that corresponds to the rating you wish to assign. Click on the star to add your rating. Your rating should be based on the quality of the content. You must have an account and be logged in to rate content.

:
(0 ratings)

Summary: In standard music notation, rests of different lengths have different shapes.

A rest stands for a silence in music. For each kind of note, there is a written rest of the same length.

Figure 1
The Most Common Rests
The Most Common Rests (Rests1.png)

Exercise 1

For each note on the first line, write a rest of the same length on the second line. The first measure is done for you.

Figure 2
Figure 2 (restprob1.png)

Solution

Figure 3
Figure 3 (restsolv1.png)

Rests don't necessarily mean that there is silence in the music at that point; only that that part is silent. Often, on a staff with multiple parts, a rest must be used as a placeholder for one of the parts, even if a single person is playing both parts. When the rhythms are complex, this is necessary to make the rhythm in each part clear.

Figure 4: When multiple simultaneous rhythms are written on the same staff, rests may be used to clarify individual rhythms, even if another rhythm contains notes at that point.
Figure 4 (Placerests.png)

The normal rule in common notation is that, for any line of music, the notes and rests in each measure must "add up" to exactly the amount in the time signature, no more and no less. For example, in 3/4 time, a measure can have any combination of notes and rests that is the same length as three quarter notes. There is only one common exception to this rule. As a simplifying shorthand, a completely silent measure can simply have a whole rest. In this case, "whole rest" does not necessarily mean "rest for the same length of time as a whole note"; it means "rest for the entire measure".

Figure 5: A whole rest may be used to indicate a completely silent measure, no matter what the actual length of the measure will be.
Figure 5 (MeasureRest.png)

Content actions

Give Feedback:

E-mail the module author | Rate module ( How does the rating system work?)

Rating system

Ratings

Ratings allow you to judge the quality of modules. If other users have ranked the module then its average rating is displayed below. Ratings are calculated on a scale from one star (Poor) to five stars (Excellent).

How to rate a module

Hover over the star that corresponds to the rating you wish to assign. Click on the star to add your rating. Your rating should be based on the quality of the content. You must have an account and be logged in to rate content.

(0 ratings)

Download:

Module PDF

Add module to:

My Favorites (?)

'My Favorites' is a special kind of lens which you can use to bookmark modules and collections directly in Connexions. 'My Favorites' can only be seen by you, and collections saved in 'My Favorites' can remember the last module you were on. You need a Connexions account to use 'My Favorites'.

| A lens (?)

Definition of a lens

Lenses

A lens is a custom view of Connexions content. You can think of it as a fancy kind of list that will let you see Connexions through the eyes of organizations and people you trust.

What is in a lens?

Lens makers point to Connexions materials (modules and collections), creating a guide that includes their own comments and descriptive tags about the content.

Who can create a lens?

Any individual Connexions member, a community, or a respected organization.

What are tags? tag icon

Tags are descriptors added by lens makers to help label content, attaching a vocabulary that is meaningful in the context of the lens.

| External bookmarks