The Quarter Note Rest
Rests are used to indicate silence in music. There are different rests for different lengths of silence just as notes indicate different lengths of sound.
This is a quarter note rest and indicates one beat of silence.
Do not play any note. Small counting numbers are placed under the rests.
In the following examples there is a rest on the fourth beat of each bar. To obtain this silence you must stop the strings from vibrating (i.e., muting them). This is achieved by placing your left hand fingers lightly on the strings. Do not press too hard as this will produce a new note. When using the left hand to mute an open string, place it over all four strings as this is easier (see photo).
When changing strings, e.g., from the open G string down to the open D string, you have to use the left hand to mute the G string, otherwise there will be two strings sounding at the same time. In the following examples use left hand muting to achieve each rest.
In the following examples the quarter rest appears on different counts and there are frequent note changes in each bar.
