Why Rests Are as Important as Notes

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. Today, I’m going to tell you why rests are as important as notes. I’m going to get a little bit metaphysical with you for just a moment. In some of his writings, Carlos Castaneda talked about how, when you’re looking at a tree, for example, you learn to tune out the space between the leaves and just focus on the leaves, as if the space between the leaves isn’t anything. But if there was no space between the leaves, you couldn’t identify the leaves!

The only thing that gives anything you look at definition is the space between.

In the universe, you have matter, energy, and the space between things. If there was no space, you would not be able to discern any matter because it would be just a whole conglomerate of mass. There would be nothing. If everything was mass, how could you have anything? Okay, that’s kind of a heady subject, but this relates to rests in music. How can you have sound if you don’t have silence? You need balance between what is and what isn’t: life and death, black and white, good and evil. This duality of reality is prevalent in music.

Rests make it possible to have music.

Without rests, you wouldn’t have sound. It’s the drama of waiting in anticipation for what’s coming next that gives music power and makes it compelling. Listen to a great jazz artist, and it’s the time between the notes where they’re formulating their ideas, much like a conversation. There’s nothing worse than getting stuck with someone who talks nonstop. You find yourself tuning out. You can’t even consider what they’re saying. It’s only the time between the sentences and your thoughts that gives you a chance to assimilate the information. And so it is with music.

Take rests for their full value!

It’s the mark of a great musician. Nothing irks me more than when I hear an accomplished concert pianist not hold rests long enough. It loses the character of the music. So remember, rests are just as important as notes. You can’t have notes without rests. Consider the time between the notes just as important as the notes themselves. I hope this resonates with you.

It’s easy to rush your counting when you’re counting rests. When nothing’s going on, it’s easy to speed up your counting! So deliberately slow down your counting to compensate for your natural tendencies. And check your work with the metronome to make sure you haven’t overcompensated. Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.