November 25, 2025: Tuesday Upbeat
Teachers: Happy Tuesday
Whole Rests & Half Rests
Here’s a fun way to teach the difference between whole rests and half rests. As you know, they are both solid rectangles and look very similar. The whole rest generally sits below the second staff line from the top, and the half rest generally sits above the middle staff line. (They can also be placed on different lines, or even floating, when used in different voices on multi-part music scores. And, the whole rest is also used as an all-measure rest, regardless of how many beats there are in a measure, including when there are only two beats in a measure.)
Most of the time, whole rests and half rests are so context-specific that their placement within the music tells the reader more about their duration than their placement above or below a line. Nevertheless, it is good for students to be able to distinguish between them on sight.
The fun part is this: the whole rest can resemble a hole, which rhymes with whole. And the half rest can resemble a hat, which kind of rhymes with half. It’s fun to draw pictures to highlight this resemblance.
Here is an entertaining video that demonstrates this, set to the music of Scott Joplin (Stoptime Rag).
Music Notation, Rests: Whole Rests and Half Rests, and How To Remember the Difference!
Enjoy!
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Have a magical Tuesday, a musical Thanksgiving week (off), and enjoy happy, healthy and tension-free teaching and learning with your students.
Thank you,
Dennis Frayne
"Dr. Dennis"
Laguna Niguel School of Music
Dennis Frayne Music Studios
30110 Crown Valley Pkwy, Suites 105/107/108
Laguna Niguel, CA 92677
(949) 844-9051 (office cell)
(949) 468-8040 (personal cell)
www.lagunaniguelschoolofmusic.com
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