Skip to content
Rhythm Reading
EN

Lesson 21 Half rest on beats 3 and 4

  • Introduction
  • 4/4
  • 60 bpm
  • 4 bars
  • 6 claps
  • New: half rest
Watch the video
60 bpm

About this exercise

Here comes the half rest: 2 beats of silence at once. It always appears in the second half of the bar (beats 3 and 4), after two quarter notes or a half note. Bar 3, "half note and half rest", shows side by side two symbols with the same length and opposite meanings.

To recognize the rest on the staff, remember: it sits on top of the middle line, like a hat. During the silence, count "3, 4" and keep your hands open and still.

Lesson video: watch and listen to the whole exercise before you practice.

Before you start

The half rest is a small rectangle sitting on top of the 3rd line and lasts 2 beats of silence. Hands open, and count "3, 4" in silence.

View Details

How to play it

  1. Count-in: the site counts 1 bar before starting ("1 2 3 4"). Clap the first note on beat 1 of bar 1.
  2. Reading: read the line on the yellow strip and look ahead to the next one: that's how you read ahead.
  3. Hands together: on notes longer than 1 beat (half note and whole note) clap and keep your hands together until the end of the note: hands together = the sound keeps going.
  4. Rests: hands open, no clapping, and keep counting in silence.

How to practice

  1. Say the count out loud, without clapping, looking at the Bar by bar table.
  2. In Together mode, count and clap at the same time as the character.
  3. In Your turn mode, clap on your own. If it's hard, slow down and then come back.

Goal: ★★★ three times in a row at 60 bpm. Then the lesson is completed.

The full practice method →

Bar by bar

Bold = clap · (n) = don't clap, the sound keeps going (hands together) · [n] = rest, hands open.

Bar Notes Count
1 2 quarter notes, half rest 1 2 [3] [4]
2 2 quarter notes, half rest 1 2 [3] [4]
3 half note, half rest 1 (2) [3] [4]
4 whole note 1 (2) (3) (4)

Notes used: whole note, half note, quarter note, half rest.