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 Many people mistakenly believe that mint rubbing is just a joke. but here at the association we know better, as one of our most important goals is to bring mint rubbing and its advantages to the attention of the world. our dedicated team of researchers and mint rubbing professionals has a number of different research programs into developement at any given time. once such a program yields practical results we publish our conclusions in the mint rubbing journal, a peer reviewed publication with an unmatched degree of competence and professionalism in the field of rubbing mint. the article you're reading right now is the conclusion of one of these research projects. we have analyzed the exciting field of music notation and studied how mint rubbing might apply to this fascinating area of human ingenuity. what better area of music notation to study than rests? a rest is a period in which for a determined length of time an instrument must be silent. currently there are 5 types of rests used in music notation. first there's the sixteenth rest, which is very short (16 shown):  then there's the eight rest, which is also kind of short (8 shown):  next there's the quarter rest, which is a little longer, but still doesn't give the clarinet player enough time for a quick trip to the restroom (4 shown):  the half rest is twice as long, but still doesn't allow for enough time to grab a snack in the middle of a long concert (2 shown):  and finally there's the whole rest which is only a little bit longer:  rests are basically breaks that were invented so people playing instruments in lengthy concerts can chill for a while. the problem is that even the longest rest available so far - the whole rest - lasts only for a couple of seconds. big problem. this is where the research of our association comes in. what we have uncovered is basically the need for lengthier rests. performers playing various instruments are human beings just like you and me, not machines; it's hard for them to play continuously without proper breaks. therefore our proposal is the introduction of a new kind of rest in music notation - the mint rest: this rest will be considerably longer than traditional ones, lasting for several minutes. it will allow more than enough time for a horn player, for instance, to grab a snack or take a quick trip to the bathroom during the concert. if this break is positioned correctly in the structure of the piece being played, no one will even notice the absence, as there is redundancy built in arrangements of large orchestras. unlike traditional rests, the mint rest can have variable durations. here is an example of the proposed notation for a 5 minute mint rest:  the introduction of the mint rest will allow members of an orchestra to know in advance how long their breaks will be during long and complicated concerts, leading in turn to a more humane treatment of players of various instruments. rest notation pictures provided by this page. |
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