Silence, sustain, and extending duration.

Music isn't just sound, it's also silence. Every note value has a matching rest that lasts the same duration but means "don't play."

A whole rest — 4 beats of silence. It's a filled rectangle hanging from a line:

A half rest — 2 beats. Sits on top of the line.

Whole and Half rests look very similar… here’s a silly mnemonic that will be stuck in your brain for eternity (seriously, I learned this in 3rd grade and can still picture my teacher’s drawings of stick men with Hats).

A quarter rest — 1 beat. That squiggly zigzag:

An eighth rest — 1/2 beat. Angled line with one flag:

A sixteenth rest — 1/4 beat. Angled line with two flags:

Rests matter as much as notes. They create space, give phrases room to breathe, and make rhythms interesting.

Here's what they look like mixed in with real notes — a quarter note, a quarter rest, then two more quarter notes:

A tie is a curved line connecting two notes of the same pitch. It means: hold the first note through the second one without re-attacking. The durations add together.

A quarter note tied to another quarter note = one note held for 2 beats. The first note (1 beat) sustains through the second (1 beat) for 2 beats total:

A half note tied to a quarter note = 3 beats total. The half (2 beats) sustains through the quarter (1 beat):

Why not just use a longer note value? Sometimes the math doesn't work out cleanly. If you need a note to sustain across a bar line a tie is the only way to notate it, and sometimes it's just clearer and easier to read to tie two notes together than to throw in a longer-value note.

Ties look a lot like slurs (curved lines connecting notes of different pitches). A slur means "play these notes smoothly connected." A tie means "these are actually one note." If the pitches are the same, it's a tie.

A dot after a note adds half of the note's original value. That's it. It makes more sense in context than it does to try to explain it in English.

A dotted half note = 2 + 1 = 3 beats. Here's a dotted half followed by a quarter — together they fill a 4/4 measure:

A dotted quarter note = 1 + 1/2 = 1.5 beats. Dotted quarters pair naturally with eighth notes — two pairs fill a measure:

A dotted eighth note = 1/2 + 1/4 = 3/4 of a beat.

Dots are shorthand. Anything you can write with a dot, you could also write with a tie — but the dot is cleaner when it works. You'll see dotted half notes constantly in 3/4 time (they fill an entire measure).

This stuff is really foundational, so take your time to make sure you're really getting it. Take your time going through these resources, even when they start repeating info! Make sure you really have this stuff down before you move on!

Need more?

We told you that everything you could ever want to know about music theory is on Wikipedia, didn't we? 😂

Alright, now it's important that you practice this stuff to make sure it's deeply engrained. LUCKILY: we have a tool for that!

  • Head on over to our Rhythm Trainer and do a few rounds. Start simple with just quarter notes, then add eights, rests, dots and ties. This can start to get pretty tricky once you've added everything in!

IMPORTANT NOTE: Music theory isn't just an academic exercise! We're learning this so we can PLAY MUSIC! As you practice counting out these examples try counting them out loud with a steady pulse. Try playing them on your instrument. Maybe even turn on a metronome.