Do you know how to identify the rest symbol in music when reading sheet music? While listening to a song, it’s common to overlook the moments of pause, as your ear naturally gravitates towards active elements like lyrics, catchy melodies, or rhythms.
However, the silence, marked by rest symbols such as the half rest, quarter rest, and eighth note rest, is essential. These pauses contribute significantly to the music’s structure and expression, acting as a breath that offers relief and creates suspense.
We’ll examine how the rest symbol in music is represented in music notation and understood through music theory.
What are rests in music?
In music theory, we use rest notes to indicate silence. These rest note symbols, crucial for understanding piano playing, instruct the musician to remain silent for a specific number of beats.
Rest notes, much like musical notes, vary in duration. For instance, a whole note rest signifies a longer silence compared to a quarter rest note or an eighth note rest. Similarly, a half rest note represents a pause for half the duration of a whole note rest.
Exploring different rest symbols in music symbols, such as the half rest symbol and the rest note symbol, helps in comprehending their functions. This knowledge is essential for recognizing and interpreting these symbols quickly, enhancing one’s ability to read and perform music effectively.
Music rest symbols: what are they?
Just as we have quarter, half, and whole notes, so too do we have quarter, half, and whole rests.
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Quarter rest or crotchet rest
A quarter rest or crotchet rest looks like this:
Imagine it like a sort of ‘Z’ with a backwards ‘C’ connected at the bottom. The quarter rests or crotchet rests are analogous to quarter notes. It has the same duration of 1 count. The only difference is that instead of pressing down a key, you “rest” your fingers.
Half rest or minim rest
A half rest or minim rest looks like this:
In music notation, this rest symbol is a rectangle that sits on top of the middle line of the staff. The symbol extends upwards and fills about ½ of the thirdspace on the staff. This rest has the same duration of two beats as half notes. Remember when you are sight reading that two minim notes equal one whole note.
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Dotted rests?
It might seem intuitive that we would use dotted rest notes in the same way we use dotted notes. However, this is often not the case. You might occasionally see a dotted quarter rest, but you will almost never see dotted half rests like you see a dotted half note. The combination of a quarter rest and half rest is most frequently used to measure the length of three beats, instead of dotted rests. You can learn about this and much more with online piano lessons from Skoove.
Whole rest or semibreve rest
The whole rest or semibreve rest looks like this:
The whole rest, also known as the whole note rest, is a rectangular musical symbol representing silence in music. This rest dangles from the fourth line of the staff and measures half the length of the third space, similar to the half-rest symbol. Whole rests are equivalent to whole notes in duration. In a 4/4 time signature, like the whole note, the whole rest spans four beats.
As a quick refresher, there is one major difference in the way rests and notes are notated in music notation. While notes can be lengthened by adding a ‘dotted dot’ or by connecting them with a ‘tie sign’, rests cannot. Rests are not prolonged by adding a tie or dotted dot to them to prolong the silence in the piece, and the rests are almost always written to compensate for this.
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Smaller lengths of time in notation
In our journey of understanding rhythm notation, we’ve grasped the technique of marking longer pauses in music with symbols like the half rest symbol and the whole note rest. But, when it comes to capturing shorter spans of silence, we turn to the eighth note rest and the sixteenth rest note. These rest notes are crucial in sheet music for indicating shorter pauses, seamlessly integrating with the quarter rest note and half rest note to articulate silence in music.
Eighth rest
An eighth rest looks like this:
An eighth rest on sheet music resembles a stylized ‘7’ and is analogous to an eighth note. An eighth rest lasts for one-half of one beat. Therefore, two eighth rests equal one quarter note, just the same as two eighth notes.
How to count this?
For example, we also count the eighth rest in the same way we count the eighth note:
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
(one and two and three and four and)
Here is an example of some basic piano chords with a couple of eighth rests thrown in:
Sixteenth rest or semiquaver rest
A sixteenth rest or semiquaver rest looks like this:
A sixteenth rest features two flags, just like the sixteenth note features two beams. Similar to the sixteenth note, this rest symbol lasts for ¼ of a beat like the note.
How to count this?
For example, we count this musical rest in the same value as well:
1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a
(one e and uh two e and uh three e and uh four e and uh)
Here is an example of some major and minor chords with a few sixteenth rests thrown
Rests with fermata
The fermata symbol looks like this:
The fermata symbol looks like a crescent shape with a dot inside of it. The fermata symbol extends the value of the corresponding note or rest. It is generally up to the performer how long to play the fermata. Learning to read these symbols is just as important as learning how to remember piano notes.
What is this rest used for?
A rest note, such as a half rest symbol, quarter rest note, or eighth note rest, when followed by a fermata, is commonly used to extend the length of silence in music or to introduce an element of drama or space within the composition. This technique, which may involve a whole note rest or a half rest note, is frequently observed at the end of a musical piece or between its sections, enhancing the expressive quality of the music.
Tie it all together
Rest symbols in music, such as the half rest, quarter rest, and eighth note rest, are vital for marking pauses in compositions. Playing these rests with precision is as important as hitting the notes themselves. These symbols can appear anywhere in a piece, from the middle of a measure to the end of a bar, and are crucial for achieving the intended silence in music.
Skoove provides an effective method to improve your ability to read rest symbols through interactive lessons that involve actual playing. Consider their seven-day free trial to enhance your music reading skills quickly.
Author of this blog post
Eddie Bond is a multi-instrumentalist performer, composer, and music instructor currently based in Seattle, Washington USA. He has performed extensively in the US, Canada, Argentina, and China, released over 40 albums, and has over a decade experience working with music students of all ages and ability levels.
