Week 2 · 12 min
Count a rest
By the end, you can come back in on the right beat after a rest.
Before this lesson
Lesson steps
1 One click per quarter note
Count four clicks out loud for each bar.
3 min · 44 bpm · 1 note per click
Check for · 2 bars at 48 BPM — Your count returns to one after the fourth click.
More detail
A bar is the group between two barlines. Here a quarter note lasts one click. An eighth note lasts half a click.
2 Reading 1, two bars
Play both bars and count the rest without losing your place.
3 min · 44 bpm · 1 note per click
Check for · 2 bars at 48 BPM — All eight beats pass once and the rest keeps its place.
More detail
Bar two starts on open string 2. Beat two is silent.
3 Two notes in one beat
Say “one and two and three and four and” with the clicks.
3 min · 48 bpm · 1 note per click
Revisit the tablature · Step 1
Check for · 2 bars at 52 BPM — Numbers land on clicks. Each “and” comes halfway between them.
More detail
The syllables divide each beat in half. Keep counting them mentally through the longer notes.
4 Reading 1, two bars
Play both bars and count the rest without losing your place.
3 min · 48 bpm · 1 note per click
Revisit the tablature · Step 2
Check for · 2 bars at 52 BPM — in bar two, B sounds on beat 1, beat 2 is silent and C enters on beat 3.
More detail
Bar two starts on open string 2. Beat two is silent.
You can move on when…
You pass when you play both bars at 52 BPM and come back on beat three after one full beat of rest.
If a movement feels difficult
I treat every 1 as a string number.
Find the line before reading the fret number.
I give each eighth note a whole click.
Speak both halves of the beat before playing bar 2 again.