A recent comment from George made me realise that I’d completely forgotten to include rests in the How To Read Ukulele Tab series. So here it is. Better a year and a half late than never.
Rests indicate that there shouldn’t be anything playing at all. That means if there was a note played before you should stop it ringing. Rests look different depending on how long they last.
Whole Note/ Semibreve Rest
Half Note/ Minim Rest
Quarter Note/ Crotchet Rest
Eighth Note/ Quaver Rest
Sixteenth Note/ Semi-quaver Rest
You’ll sometimes see rests with a dot after them. This means you should increase the length of the rest by half (e.g. a minim rest with a dot after it would last for three beats).
This series was derived from my ebook Ukulele 101: 101 Things Every Ukulele Player Needs to Know.
Read the full series here: How To Read Ukulele Tab.
Thanks for the information, Al. I have been wondering what these signs meant and had chosen to just ignore them. Now I know what they mean.