So far, we’ve been looking a lot at just notes … that is, which notes to play (pitch) and how long to play them (duration). But we can’t forget about that other basic part of music—silence. You see, all the best musicians will sometimes let their music breathe. And that helps make their songs more interesting. Just like a painter uses “white space” on the canvas, musicians use silence—or “rests”—in a melody.

Have you ever heard a comedian say that “timing is everything”? Well, by “timing” they mean the pause. In any good joke, the pause is as important as the punch line. And it’s the same with music. Interesting melodies should include a little silence now and then. Because listeners might get bored if they don’t have a break.

By using “rest” symbols, musicians can insert short, silent pauses in a melody … which breathe life into a song … and help your listeners stay awake. And like everything else in music, these symbols are totally simple. In fact, they even look a lot like the duration symbols we already know and love. For every note symbol in music, we have a matching rest symbol.

There’s nothing tricky or surprising about rests. They work just like notes … and they also follow the beat of a time signature. So depending on the kind of melody you want to play, rests are used along with notes to create some really interesting sounds.

To see what I mean, check out the following time patterns. Using a 4/4 time signature, we can count out the beat using both notes and rests. We simply “play” each rest by playing nothing at all (!). Just take a short “rest” when you come up to a rest symbol (keeping your fingers in place) … and then continue playing when you see the next note. By mixing sound and silence together in this way, we suddenly have even more options for making cool melodies.

Just like before, it helps to first count out the beat before playing the melody. Then, once you have a feel for how it flows, try hitting every note—remembering to pause briefly for the rests. As you go through each of these examples, listen carefully. Because you might actually hear your own brain expanding….

… And just to be sure we understand how rests are used in a song, let’s play through the next melody. It’s a lot like the songs we’ve already played. Only now, we’ve thrown in a few rest symbols to make things more interesting.