Overview: This video covers Sixteenth Notes Rests and introduces the 2/4 Time Signature!

Assignment: Joel Rothman's Teaching Rhythm, pages 35 - 41 : Get The Book (paid link)

You can also get a metronome here: Get the Metronome (paid link)

Thanks for joining me again for the Rhythm and Reading Series. This lesson is about 16th Note Rests.

16th note rests are very similar to the other types of rests that you've learned about previously. If you are not familiar with rests at all, I recommend that you go back and watch the videos for the different types of rests (links in next paragraph).

You've seen rests for 8th notes, quarter notes, half notes and whole notes, and all those rhythms serve to add silence to your measure. You have the rhythms that you play and the rhythms that you don't play.

Rests fill in the gaps between the played rhythms and ensure that your measure has accounted for all of its time. That's ALWAYS rule #1.

As I'm sure you've already figured out, a 16th Note Rest will take the place of a single 16th note. They are made up of a stem and two flags.

The interesting thing about 16th note rests is that they can be put in four different places within a single beat. If you are used to subdividing, then this lesson will be a breeze for you.

I've tried to make it easy for you to hear examples of each of these rhythms by including links to the exact part of my video where I played them. Be sure to use those links!

Here are all the positions where you can have a 16th note rest (Fig. 1). It can be on the number, the “e”, the “+”, or the “a”. Click Here to hear the example.

You can also have two rests in a grouping, like in these examples (Fig. 2). Click Here to hear the example.

Finally, you can have three rests in a beat like in these examples in Figure 3. Click Here to hear the example.

I’m personally not a fan of the beaming in the last example, because I believe that composers would use other ways to simplify the music that we haven’t seen yet. This is just a great example of how there may be many ways to write the same thing, and it will be up to the composer to choose the best way.

Like I mentioned in the previous lesson, the more intricate you get with the subdivision, the more rhythmic your music will sound.

Joel Rothman has done a really good job of introducing 16th notes rests in a methodical manner in pages 35 through 41. You can hear the examples by clicking the links I mentioned above, or just watch the whole video.

Finally, there's a nice surprise for you in the summary on page 41. Rothman includes a new time signature - 2/4 (Fig. 4).

Don't be freaked out by it; you know how time signatures work.

The top number means we're counting to two in each measure. When you were in 4/4, you counted to four. When the time signature was 3/4, you counted to three and in 5/4 you counted to five. Here's a 2/4 time signature, you count to two.

The bottom number is still a four and that means the pulse you feel is quarter notes. If you look at this page it's all 16th notes but it's 2 groupings of four 16th notes. Each group of four 16ths is one beat.

We are now officially coming to a crossroads in the Rhythm and Reading Series. The next lesson is about two new Elements of Music that extend the duration of a beat - Ties and Dots.

From there I will split into two different directions. The first is a look at new types of subdivisions, which will be a very long path and get into college-level stuff.

The second road is a musical concept that has its own notation system, and has influenced all modern music since the beginning of the last century.

That direction's a somewhat shorter detour, but very important in understanding Rhythm and Reading.

Remember you can get all of the videos right to your inbox weekly by subscribing to my newsletter here or be notified when I post new videos by subscribing to my YouTube channel.

Also remember that if you want to practice along, you can get Joel Rothman's Teaching Rhythm and a metronome from my Amazon Associates account, which gives me a commission if you use my links above. That would be AWESOME!