It is really only music that heavily uses notation, that uses rests, so I’m talking about classical music and jazz music. However, if you play popular music that doesn’t rely on printed music, you still should be made aware of rests and use them in your playing.
Rests are simply gaps of silence in the music and most of the time they are defined in length so it doesn’t interfere with the overall timing of the piece of music. Some of you might be curious as to why silence is important in music.
Silence is obviously the opposite of sound and because of this, silence can be used to great effect in music. Silence, or rests can be used to create certain moods and emotions. The first mood that comes to mind is that the use of rests can make the music seem less cluttered, less busy – it can give a piece of music a sense of periodically taking a breath. Rests can also help in conveying a quiet, reflective or peaceful mood.
But rests are not just used for calming tranquil music. Rests can also be used to heighten tension. By allowing the music to be delayed by a beat or two, it builds tension by delaying the anticipated next note or chord. Rests can even be used to help convey feelings of anger and frustration.
Rests have even been used to create surprises within the music. What I think of specifically is Haydn’s symphony no. 94, 2nd movement, often referred to as the surprise symphony. I really can’t imagine this piece of music without all the rests adding to create the surprises.
The other use of rests is in a music ensemble, where having different instruments having periods of silence or rests, can help to add variety and interest to a piece of music. An example of this when an ensemble has all but one instrument silent, therefore allowing a solo by one of the instruments. It certainly makes the piece of music more interesting.
Rests are helpful while reading music for instruments like the piano and the harp, where each hand is capable of producing different notes with each hand at the same time. The rests are a great means to show when one hand or the other is not playing notes at all – even if it is only for one or two beats. The other advantage is that it makes it clear which notes in the right hand and left hand are meant to be played at the same time.
So often I have seen piano students ignore rests, but they are really very useful and no matter whether you read music or not, having rests – even short ones along the way, will make your music sound more interesting.