A good way to become more comfortable with eighth rests is to play a scale with a rhythm pattern containing an eighth rest on every beat and an eighth note in between every beat, which creates a syncopated rhythm.
Syncopation means displacing the normal flow of accents, usually from on the beat to off the beat. This is demonstrated in the following example. When using rests, counting is particularly important so you don’t get lost and play notes in the wrong place.
Now try improvising with set rhythms which contain eighth rests. As mentioned earlier, it is best to memorize the rhythm on one note first, and then to improvise with it. Here are some examples of this type of playing. Remember to use the system shown previously to identify where the notes fall in relation to the four beats of the bar.
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