Eighth Note Pairs with Quarter Rests and Half Rests
In this practice session, practice playing pairs of eighth notes, two per beat, with rests on the beat.
Practice Tips
In this video, we practice reading 15 permutations of eighth note pairs in 4/4 time, played on the snare drum.
Try slowing it down if you need to, or speed it up if you want a challenge!
Happy drumming :)
Instructions
In this video, we’ll be practicing 15 permutations of eighth notes pairs in combination with quarter rests, and half rests.
We’ll be repeatedly counting to four as we play the exercises. We’ll divide each count into two and we’ll say “and“ for the second half: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and. On each count or and, we’ll either play a note, or rest and do nothing.
Eighth notes get half a count. When there are two eighth notes side by side, they are joined together with a beam.
Quarter rests each get one full count.
Half rests get two full counts.
We don’t typically count the “ands” for quarter rests and half rests.
Let’s look at an example. We’re starting with an eighth note on count 1 joined to another eighth note on the “and” of 1, so we’ll play a note at the same time as we say 1, and play another at the same time as we say “and”. On count 2, we have a quarter rest, so we do nothing while counting 2, and we’ll also do nothing on counts 3 and 4 for the half rest. We don’t need to say “and” for the quarter rest or half rest.
Let’s look at another example.
Here, we have a quarter rest on the first count, we so count 1 but do nothing. The second count has a pair of eighth notes, so we say 2 while playing a note and say “and” while playing another note. The third count also has a pair of eighth notes, so we’ll count 3 and “and” while playing two more notes. And on the fourth count is another quarter rest, so we’ll count 4 but do nothing.
Let’s play through the exercise. We’ll repeat each pattern four times and move directly into the next one. Follow along and I’m sure you’ll pick it up pretty quickly. We’ll count to four and begin.
Post Practice
How did it go? It might take a little practice to get it right. Try it again, a little slower if you need to, or a little faster if you want to give yourself more of a challenge. Repeat it a few times over the next week to develop the habit of practice and you’ll see consistent improvement and better retention.
Download the sheet music for this exercise as a PDF. Use it for your own practice or with students. 🆓 Care of Drummism!
⬇️ Download it!