Ties, rests and grouping

About 2 min to read, then 6 practice questions

Recap: ties

A tie joins two notes of the same pitch into one sound, often across a barline: add the two lengths together.

The tied Es make one sound of 1 + 2 = 3 beats

Grouping rests

Rests are grouped so a player can always see the beats:

Finish the beat first, then give each whole beat its own rest.
In 4/4, half a bar of silence can be one minim rest, but only on beat 1 or beat 3, never across the middle of the bar.
A whole bar of silence is a semibreve rest, in any time signature.

Finish beat 1 with a quaver rest, then a crotchet rest for beat 2, then a minim rest for beats 3 and 4

3/4: a separate crotchet rest for each silent beat

Grouping notes

Beams follow the same rule: a beam stays inside a beat. In 3/4 six quavers go in three pairs; in 4/4 four quavers can share a beam on beats 1 and 2 or 3 and 4, never across the middle; in 3/8 the whole bar is usually one beamed group.

4/4: four quavers beamed together over beats 1 and 2

Practise this: 6 questions, about 5 min

Answering from memory soon after reading is what makes it stick, so now is a good time.

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