Grouping Notes and Rests

Music is much easier to read when notes and rests are grouped to show the beat. At Grade 2 you learn how to beam quavers and semiquavers correctly, how to place rests, and how triplets work.

Beaming to show the beat

Quavers and semiquavers are joined with beams. The main rule is that each beam group should fit within a single beat, so the reader can see where each beat starts. In 4/4, for example, quavers are usually beamed in pairs, one pair to each crotchet beat, rather than in one long line of eight.

In wider time signatures such as 4/4 there is also a rule about the middle of the bar: the grouping should let the eye see the halfway point, so we do not beam right across the centre of the bar. Seeing the middle helps a performer keep their place.

Grouping rests

Rests follow the beat too. In general you use a separate rest for each beat rather than one large rest, so that each beat of the bar is clear. A whole bar of silence is shown by a semibreve rest hanging under a line, whatever the time signature. Just as with notes, rests should show the middle of the bar in four-beat time.

Triplets

A triplet squeezes three equal notes into the time normally taken by two of the same kind. The most common is three quavers played in the time of two quavers, which fills exactly one crotchet beat. A triplet is written with a small figure 3 above or below the group, often with a bracket or slur.

Triplets can also include rests: a triplet group may contain a rest in place of one of its notes, but the figure 3 still shows that three positions share the time of two. Whatever is inside, the whole triplet still fills the same length as the two ordinary notes it replaces.