A rest is a period of silence. Small count-numbers are placed under rests.
This is a whole rest.
It indicates one bar of silence.
A whole rest in * time indicates four beats of silence.
This is a half rest.
It indicates two beats of silence.
This is a quarter rest.
It indicates one beat of silence.
Each type of rest is demonstrated in the following exercise. If a rest comes after you have played a note, you must stop the note sounding. To do this, lift your finger off the fret but keep it lightly touching the string (bars 1, 3 and 8). To stop an open string sounding, lightly touch it with any finger of your left hand (bars 2, 4 and 6).
The following melody contains rests.
The following pieces use all the notes one the first three strings.