All right, I have a question (or two):
Let's say there's an A whole note on the second leger line below the staff (you know where it's located...). Anyway, it's a whole note but on the staff itself, there's a quarter rest. Why? Does the note then have a quarter note duration? I don't really understand why there's a rest above a note. What's the purpose?
Also, why put one rest on top of the staff and another underneath? Shouldn't one be enough?
If you don't understand what I'm saying, you could check out the PDF in this lesson https://www.guitarnoise.com/article.php?id=575 You can see what I mean in the first measures.
Thanks!
The note that the rest is over is a bass note and what they are telling you is that the note rings out for the full measure while you play the other notes.
I think what they are trying to show having a rest above and below the staff is to indicate a rest for the melody and the bass notes.
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Exactly as Chalk says. That music is written in two independent parts. Independent parts that share a staff (as is the case with single guitar parts) are shown by notes with stems up to show the treble part and stems down to show the bass part (either part can have harmony notes too). You can usually determine which part whole notes and rests (having no stems) belong to by their position on the staff. Measure three shows both parts having a rest at the same time - meaning silence for the duration of an eighth note.
You can also confirm that the parts are complete by checking that EACH PART adds up to the duration specified by the key signature, in this case a whole note (4 quarter notes).
Puke, you can consider as two staffs in one: The first (the upper zone) for the chords and the second, as Chalkoutline said, for the bass line. Each one needs the rest to complete the measures. For the bass line, the second measure is composed by a whole note but the first one has three quarters (blacks) and two eighths (it is a 4/4).
This is common in piano partitures. They use two staffs (and two clefs, one for each hand) but sometimes the "melody" in one staff is written in the other. For example, when the right hand (treble) goes to low notes.
Nuno
Thanks for the replies, guys. That cleared it up quite well!
