Hi Guys, quick question just one confuse here. why 8 note rest was use next to 16th note. They said 3 N A 4 N. I’m thinking about counting 3 E N A 4 . Thanks.
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The way it’s written looks right to me. If you need to count the e to keep time that’s fine. “And a” is a rhythm I’ve come across in real music with some regularity.
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Basically…
That means that you rest for “3” and “e”; you then proceed and play “& a”.
If the symbol was a “7” with 2 dots on top, you’d rest for 1/16th… here you rest for 1/8th… or 2/16ths 
1/8th is just the fraction simplified.
Ah… M&Ms… Maths & Music
EDIT: Just to add… you remember when you see those [: :] symbols on a stave… that means to repeat? It’s a way to simplify what you write… making it less cluttered.
(Image borrowed from Amazon)
So… Eighth rest = 2 Sixteenth rests… so instead of putting two semi-quaver rests(sixteenth rests), they just use 1 quaver rest.
Quaver = 8th
Semi-quaver = 16th
Demisemi-quaver = 32nd
Different naming conventions…
Sorry if I made this too long… 
I think that’s just convention. As far as the notation goes I don’t think I’ve ever seen two sixteenth rests next to each other; they would always be written as an eighth rest.
How you count it is entirely up to you. For example in this:
The timing pattern is repeated over six bars and I always count the tied eighth and quarter as “and a 4 e and a” even though that’s not how it’s actually notated.
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The only time I think a human would write it with two sixteenth rests next to each other is if they were in different measures.
Bad software transcriptions probably do it all the time though
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Ah, yes I didn’t think of neighbouring rests in different measures! 
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