Rests in music: every rest symbol and its length

Music is not just sound. The silences between sounds shape a rhythm as much as the notes do, and composers write those silences down with symbols called rests. A rest tells you to stay quiet for a certain length of time while you keep counting. Every note value has a rest of the same length, so once you know the notes, learning the rests is quick.

What is a rest in music?

A rest is a written silence. Where a note says "make a sound for this long," a rest says "make no sound for this long." The beat does not stop during a rest. You keep counting and tapping, and you come back in exactly on time. This is why rests matter so much in ensemble playing: every player has to count the silent measures to enter at the right moment.

The five main rests

There is a rest for every note value. The whole rest is a small filled rectangle that hangs below a line. The half rest is a similar rectangle that sits on top of a line. The quarter rest looks like a squiggly zigzag. The eighth rest looks like a slanted stroke with one small flag, and the sixteenth rest looks the same but with two flags.

How to tell the whole rest from the half rest

The whole rest and the half rest are almost the same shape, so people often mix them up. The difference is position. The whole rest hangs below the fourth line from the bottom, like something dangling from a rope. The half rest sits on top of the middle (third) line, like a hat resting on a head.

How long does each rest last?

Rests follow the same rules as notes. In 4/4, where the bottom number 4 means the quarter note gets the beat, the quarter rest lasts 1 beat, the half rest 2 beats and the whole rest 4 beats. An eighth rest lasts half a beat and a sixteenth rest a quarter of a beat. In other time signatures the amounts change just as note values do, so check the time signature first.

There is one special rule: a whole rest also means a full measure of silence in any time signature. In 3/4, a whole rest means three beats. In 2/4, it means two beats. This is why a whole rest fills an empty measure of any length.

How to count rests

Count rests exactly as you would count notes, but stay silent. In 4/4, a quarter rest on beat 2 means you say "2" in your head and make no sound. An eighth rest on the "&" of a beat means you say "&" silently. Tapping your foot through a rest keeps your timing steady and helps you enter again at the right moment.

Dotted rests

A dot after a rest works exactly like a dot after a note: it adds half the rest's value. A dotted quarter rest lasts 1 and a half beats. A dotted half rest lasts 3 beats. Dotted rests are less common than dotted notes, but they follow the same rule.

Where rests go on the staff

Unlike notes, rests do not show pitch, so they do not move up and down with the melody. They sit in the middle of the staff in a fixed place. Rests are often grouped in a way that makes the beats easy to see, so a half rest is typically written to fill beats 1 and 2 or 3 and 4, but not beats 2 and 3.

Individual rest pages

The most common rests have their own pages: the whole rest, the half rest and the quarter rest. To compare them with the sounding values, see note values and the page on how to read sheet music.

Chart of notes and rests

Check yourself

Related pages

• Whole rest: symbol and how long it lasts
• Half rest: symbol, beats and how to spot it
• Quarter rest: symbol and how many beats it gets
• Note values: how long each note lasts
• Time signatures explained
• How to read sheet music, step by step