When someone learns to read music, they soon learn about rests. Rests indicate when a person is not playing their instrument, or in the case of the piano, when one hand or both hands are not playing any notes at all. The effect is moments or periods of silence.
For some people, the concept of silence in music seems somewhat strange, but actually it really isn’t. The silence can be used to give some space between the notes to create a more dramatic flair to a piece of music. Rests can also help achieve a somewhat opposite mood – the silence can help the music feel more quiet, calming and peaceful. Rests have also been used to give the illusion that the piece of music is slowing down, where in reality the tempo hasn’t changed at all.
Rests are very useful in the context of many instruments performing together such as an orchestra, choir or big band, for example. The rests are used to indicate when an instrument or groups of instruments are not playing at all. Even in the case of duets, rests form the function of indicating when just one instrument is playing.
As briefly mentioned earlier, rests have another function when it comes to playing the piano – it helps to keep the music clear as to what right hand and left hand notes are being played at the same time. This usually isn’t an issue at all for beginner’s piano music but when it comes to the more complex music, the rests make it clear what notes are played at the same time. Without the rests, it would be very difficult to work out what notes are played together and what notes are played separately. The other reason why rests are so important in piano music (organ and harp music too!), is because piano music is written on two staves (or staffs in the US) and it can be a challenge to see which notes line up with what notes. Other instruments don’t have this problem because their music is written only on one stave.
Again, because piano music has two staves, rests are the best way of indicating when one or other hand is not playing any notes. The hand that is not playing is literally, in two ways, having a rest.
The topic of rests can seem rather dull and boring, but rests fulfil a very important function of allowing the musician to accurately read the notes and to enhance the mood or atmosphere that the composition is creating.