Count rests and ties on guitar: three 4/4 exercises

A rest asks for silence for its written duration. A tie joins two adjacent notes of the same pitch into one sustained sound: pluck the first, then continue through the second without plucking again. Keep counting in both cases.

These original exercises separate three actions: starting a note, letting it ring and stopping it. They use one open guitar string so you can concentrate on timing. If note values are new, read note duration first.

Set up the string and count

Use a six-string guitar in standard tuning, with no capo. Play only string 1, the thin high E, open: no fretting finger. Keep the other strings quiet. The tuning lesson identifies the strings.

To stop the E, gently touch its string with a finger of your plucking hand. You can keep that contact during the rest; release it before the next pluck. A rest here means silence in this guitar part; a metronome or another instrument can continue sounding.

Before using a grid, count four steady beats. Pluck on 1, touch the string to stop it on 2, and stay silent on 3 and 4. Repeat slowly until you can make that silence cleanly; lifting the touching finger alone is not an instruction to pluck.

Every exercise is in 4/4, with four quarter-note beats per complete bar. Count evenly:

1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &

Say “and” for each &, halfway between the numbers. There are eight equal eighth-note positions. The & after 4 is halfway to the next bar’s 1. At the metronome, select four beats per bar and let each click mark a number. Start at a comfortable pace, such as 60 BPM; place each “and” between clicks.

The grids below use this lesson’s action labels, rather than standard notation or tab symbols:

H can occur inside one written note or during a tie. It does not by itself mean that a tie is written there. The accompanying note-value description tells you which applies. A guitar note naturally fades; do not add a pluck during a hold to make it louder.

Exercise 1: alternate a note and a rest

Play a quarter note on 1, a quarter rest on 2, a quarter note on 3 and a quarter rest on 4. Each note lasts one beat; each rest lasts one beat. The bar totals four beats.

Count:  1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
Action: P H R R P H R R

Pluck on 1 and let E ring through 1-and. Stop it exactly on 2 and stay silent through 2-and. Pluck again on 3, then stop on 4. Keep saying the count while the string is silent.

Play four bars in total, starting the next bar’s pluck on the next 1. There are two plucks per bar, eight in total. After the fourth bar’s rest on 4, remain silent and finish; do not begin a fifth bar.

A skipped strike in a strumming pattern can allow a chord to ring. A written rest requires the intended silence. Check the instructions instead of treating every missing strike as a rest.

Exercise 2: two plucks inside one beat

This bar starts with a quarter rest. Beat 2 contains two eighth notes, followed by a quarter rest on 3 and a quarter note on 4.

Count:  1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
Action: R R P P R R P H

1. Stay silent on 1 and 1-and.
2. Pluck on 2, then pluck again on 2-and. Each note lasts half a beat; the second pluck begins a new note of the same pitch.
3. Stop on 3 and stay silent through 3-and.
4. Pluck on 4 and let that note last through 4-and.

Stop the last note on the next 1, where the opening rest begins. Play this one-bar pattern for four bars in total. After the fourth bar, stop on the following 1 and finish. Each bar has three plucks, so the four bars have twelve.

Check the values: one quarter rest + two eighth notes + one quarter rest + one quarter note = four quarter-note beats. The extra pluck on 2-and divides beat 2; it does not add a fifth beat.

Exercise 3: hold a tie across the bar line

This two-bar phrase includes a quarter note on beat 4 of bar 1 tied to a half note at the start of bar 2. All its sounded notes are the same open E. The tied values make one continuous three-beat note.

Bar 1
Count:  1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
Action: R R P H R R P H

Bar 2
Count:  1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &
Action: H H H H R R P H

In bar 1, rest on 1, pluck on 2, stop for the rest on 3, then pluck on 4. Keep that last note ringing through bar 2’s beats 1 and 2. Do not pluck on bar 2’s 1. Stop it on bar 2’s 3, then pluck a new E on 4.

Each bar still contains four beats:

The tie adds durations across the boundary; it does not move the bar line or change the count. Dots and ties explains their notation and how they differ from slurs.

Play the complete two-bar phrase twice, giving four bars in total. After bar 2’s final note, stop on the next 1 for the opening rest of the repeated phrase. That boundary has no tie. After the second pass, stop on the next 1 and finish. Each two-bar phrase has three plucks, so two passes give six plucks over four bars.

Check the actions before playing

Try these without looking back at the grids:

1. In exercise 1, what happens on 2-and: a pluck, a hold or silence?
2. In exercise 2, how much time separates the plucks on 2 and 2-and? How many plucks are in one bar?
3. In exercise 3, when does the tied note start and stop? How many beats does it last?
4. Do you pluck on bar 2’s beat 1 in exercise 3? What happens on beat 3?
5. After the final note in exercises 2 and 3, when do you stop it? Does the return to exercise 3’s opening rest have a tie?

After playing, check the stated total: eight plucks for exercise 1, twelve for exercise 2, or six for exercise 3. The count should keep its spacing through every rest, the string should be quiet during those rests, and exercise 3 should have no new attack on bar 2’s 1. Finish at the stated boundary. If one check fails, practise that part slowly before another full run.

If the rhythm loses its place

Say the count through a full silent bar before playing. If the rests make you speed up, practise exercise 1 at a slower pulse. Keep the number spacing steady even when the string is quiet.

If a rest still contains ringing, return to the opening pluck-and-stop drill. If you accidentally pluck the tied note again, count the two bars aloud and say “hold” on bar 2’s 1 and 2 before returning to the guitar.

If you lose the count, stop, count a complete bar and restart on 1. Use bars and time signatures to check the totals, then return to the strumming lesson when you want to combine rhythm with chord shapes. These exercises establish their own timing; they are not transcriptions of songs or recordings.

Source notes

Open Music Theory’s rhythmic-values guide explains rests and ties between identical pitches. The Open University’s lessons on time values, dots and ties and rest values support the duration rules. The action grids, guitar instructions and self-checks were written for this lesson.