Lesson 5: Eighth Note Rests
Overview: This video covers Eighth Note Rests, the Whole Note Rest, the single-measure repeat sign; and the concepts of Downbeat and Upbeat.
Assignment: Joel Rothman's Teaching Rhythm, pages 12 - 25 : Get The Book (paid link)
You can also get a metronome here: Get the Metronome (paid link)
Welcome back! Today's lesson is about 8th Note Rests. If you remember from the previous videos, a rest is a beat of silence. It's like a place holder in the music to help you keep time when you're not playing.
You might recognize this line of music from the previous lesson (Fig. 1). In that lesson, I talked about the parts of the note for the first time.
Fig. 1 Whole Note, Half Notes, Quarter Notes and Eighth Notes Source: www.ChristianJohnsonDrums.com
Notes consist of a notehead, which is the oval-like part. Most also have a stem, which is like a stem of a plant and grows up or down out of the note head. Then, you have what are called flags or beams. These will indicate rhythms that are smaller than a single quarter note. The first rhythm smaller than a quarter note you learned about was the 8th Note, with a single flag or single beam.
Each of these note types have their own type of rest (Fig. 2). You've already seen half note and quarter note rests, so I don't need to go over that again, but I've added the Whole Note Rest, which we haven't seen in the musical examples yet.
Fig. 2 Whole Note, Half Note, Quarter Note and Eighth Note Rests
Source: www.ChristianJohnsonDrums.com
As you might guess, the whole note rest takes the place of a whole note and is equivalent to four beats of silence. To distinguish between the whole note rest and the half note rest, remember a few things (Fig. 3):
The whole note rest is 4 beats long, and can be thought of as "heavy". That's why it hangs from the second line of the staff from the top.
The half note is lighter - only two beats - and so it floats on the middle line, like a little boat.
Fig. 3 Whole Note and Half Note Rests - Heavy and Light Source: www.ChristianJohnsonDrums.com
Next we have the 8th Note Rest. It's similar to the 8th Note in that it has one flag attached to the left of it. This is important because as we get into other rhythms, we'll be adding more flags. I'll explain that in future lessons.
Fig. 4 Eighth Note Rests Source: www.ChristianJohnsonDrums.com
The 8th note rest replaces one 8th note with silence. If you remember, we need two 8th notes to make up a quarter note, so naturally you would need two 8th note rests to take up one quarter note. More likely, you'll only see one 8th note rest in the beat, meaning that you will play the other 8th note.
On page 12 of Joel Rothman's Teaching Rhythm (Fig.5), we are introduced to the 8th Note Rest in a musical context. This is where counting the subdivision really comes in handy. You count the 8ths the same - 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and - but this time you don't play every single 8th Note. Hear the examples by jumping to 4:30 in the lesson video.
8th note rests cannot be beamed together by themselves, but you may see an 8th note rest in a group of beamed 8th notes. There are examples of 8th note rests being written both ways in the excerpt below.
Fig. 5 Eighth Note Rests on the Downbeat Source: Teaching Rhythm, Joel Rothman (c) 1967 Joel Rothman
The next few pages are about playing 8th note rests on the Downbeat. After that, Rothman introduces 8th note rests on the Upbeat.
Downbeat and Upbeat are two concepts that relate to the feel or pulse of the music. Downbeats are typically felt with the count of the measure - they line up on the numbers, or with the click if you're using a metronome.
Downbeats have a slight emphasis that occurs naturally from lining up with the beat. You don't purposefully make them louder or stronger, it happens almost magically through some unknown internal rhythm that makes us human.
Upbeats happen on the unaccented or un-pulsed rhythms. In this case, they will line up with all of the "ands" when you count the subdivision. Since they aren't lining up with the count, they have a slightly weaker feel. Again, this happens totally naturally and you don't have to force it.
Downbeats have an impression of weight that pulls downward. Upbeats are lighter, and pull upward between the heavy beats. Click here to jump to the part of the video where I explain this further.
The right feel and performance of these rhythms will come with time, listening to music and practicing with other musicians, but for now, it's enough to keep counting the subdivision slowly and playing the rhythms in the right places.
"Rests on the Downbeats" mean that in a single beat, the rest will be on the number, but you will still play the "and". "Rests on the Upbeats" mean that in a single beat, the rest will be on the "and", you will play on the number only.
Before I wrap up this lesson, there is one new Element of Music to point out. On page 25, you're introduced to the Single Measure Repeat sign (Fig. 6). You'll recognize it because it's similar to a percent sign (%). When you see this symbol in a measure, it means to repeat the previous measure. It's a shorthand way to simplify the music, by avoiding writing the same thing over and over again.
Fig. 6 The Single Measure Repeat Sign Source: Teaching Rhythm, Joel Rothman (c) 1967 Joel Rothman
That's it for this lesson, but I should point out that there's actually a lot of work to do here. The concepts behind more complex rhythms are similar; we are mostly dealing with different subdivisions; but starting with 8th Notes, there are more combinations available to you. Remember, in a measure of 4/4 time, you can have up to eight 8ths notes or rests, in any mix of them.
To practice all of these different combinations, I recommend playing through Joel Rothmans's Teaching Rhythm pages 12 through 25. Use a moderate tempo on your metronome at first, no more than 100 BPM, to give yourself a fighting chance to count out loud and place these rhythms exactly where they belong. The links to the book and the metronome are at the top of this lesson.
Also, remember the concepts of Downbeat and Upbeat, because they'll be coming back in future lessons, but don't get too hung up on trying to accent the music in any specific way. The pulse and feel will come naturally as you start to play with other musicians.
I'll see you next time when I start a two-part lesson on 16th Notes.
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