Counting Rests Without Losing Your Place
Most wrong entries are born in a long rest. This free card sets out the six habits that stop them, with a worked example drawn as it would look pencilled into a real part. Print it, keep it in the front of the folder, and pass it on.
Print it and it lives in the front of your folder; save it to your phone and it is there at the rehearsal break. It is free, and there is nothing to sign up for.
Download the PDFWhat is on the card
Counting bars rather than beats, so the beats look after themselves. Keeping the count on your hand: one hand closes a finger per bar, the other collects the completed fists, and twenty-three bars sits there as four fingers and three. Writing the cue above the entry. Turning one long rest into several short ones at the rehearsal letters. Preparing during the final bars, with the breath taken in tempo. And what to do when the count is lost: do not guess, wait for a landmark you can trust, and come in there.
Related
This card pairs with the free practice guide for your instrument — all twelve are on the Guides hub — and with the other reference cards on the Cards hub.
Counting is one half of the job; the other half is having something real to count through. On MaestroMeet you play your part with the score scrolling in front of you and the rest of the orchestra around you, so what this card teaches has something real to land on. MaestroMeet is opening soon — join the waitlist to be among the first to play.
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Please pass this card on. It is free, there is nothing to sign up for, and every musician it reaches is one more reason to keep the music flowing.