Rests and beams that show the beats

About 2 min to read, then 6 practice questions

Rests

Beat 1 finished, then each beat

A dotted crotchet rest for a whole beat

Finish the beat first. After that, every silent beat has a rest of its own. In  a minim rest goes on beat 1 or 3, never across the middle; in compound time a whole silent beat is a dotted rest. A whole silent bar is a semibreve rest.

Quick check

In , beats 2 and 3 are silent. Which rests?

Beams

In pairs: three beats

In threes: two beats

A beam stays inside a beat. In , four quavers may share a beam across beats 1 and 2 or 3 and 4, but never across the middle. In compound time, quavers are beamed in threes.

Quick check

In , can quavers on beats 2 and 3 share one beam?

Remember

Finish the beat first, then a rest for each silent beat.
Never hide the middle of 4/4; compound beats in threes.

Practise this: 6 questions, about 5 min

Answering from memory soon after reading is what makes it stick, so now is a good time.

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