Learn to Play Recorder

Lesson 17: Rests and Silence

  • Count rests as carefully as notes.
  • Play a piece in which the silence is half the music.

The rests are part of the melody.

Rests have the same durations as notes — whole, half, quarter, eighth — and they are silences that count, not pauses to gather yourself. A quarter rest is a full beat; play the next note half a beat early and the rhythm has changed. A rest at a phrase end is when you breathe; a rest in the middle is the music asking you to wait.

Count one-two-three-four — each bar still has four beats, and the rest is one of them, silent.

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The bars still sum to four beats each.

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Play: a piece full of breath

The rests at the phrase ends are where you breathe. Cut one short and the phrase tumbles into the next.

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Now play these

Hot Cross Buns
Make the implicit rests between phrases explicit.
Branle Simple
Phrase structure built around clearly counted rests.
Silent Night
Treat the breath spaces at line endings as rests.

When the rests in your playing are as clean as the notes — full value, exactly placed — move on to Lesson 18.