Playing Rhythm Guitar: Basics Part 5 – Understanding Rests

quarter-note-rest1-fi

Playing guitar is not just about producing sounds. Sometimes there needs to be silence between chords or notes.

This may come as a surprise, but it’s equally as important to know when to play, as it is to know when not to play.

Periods of silence (rests) are often used as a form of musical punctuation.

In this tutorial, we will look at how periods of silence are notated with rests.

Continue reading

Playing Rhythm Guitar: Basics Part 4 – Understanding Quarter Notes

Quarter note in rhythmic notation

In the Rhythm Guitar Basics Parts 1-3 tutorials, we looked at whole notes and half notes and basic strumming patterns on the guitar.

In this tutorial, we turn our attention to the quarter note.

The Quarter Note

The quarter note receives one beat in 4/4 time.

Continue reading