Guide to Musical Rests: 8 Types of Rests in Sheet Music

In music theory, a rest refers to an interval of time that a player is not sounding a note on their instrument. Music rests abound throughout all styles of music, contributing to memorable melodies and rhythms. If you consider the rhythm or groove of a piece of music, that groove does not consist merely of the notes that a musician plays; it is also built on the moments when the musician is not playing anything at all. The back-and-forth pattern of notes and rests enables rhythmic phrasing, and out of these musical phrases, entire pieces of music emerge.

In sheet music notation, where note values represent the length of music notes, rest values represent the length of pauses. There are eight basic musical rests that working musicians should recognize on musical staves:

1. Whole note rest: Also known as a whole rest or a semibreve rest, this symbol represents a musical pause that is the length of a whole note. In a 4/4 time signature, a whole rest tells the player to pause for the whole bar. On a five-line musical staff, a whole rest hovers just below the fourth line.

2. Half note rest: Also called a half rest or minim rest, this rest covers half of an entire bar of 4/4. It is one half the length of a whole rest. On a five-line musical staff, a half rest hovers just above the middle line.

3. Quarter note rest: A quarter note rest, also called a crotchet rest, covers the duration of a quarter note. A quarter rest symbol looks unlike any other rest in music notation.

4. Eighth note rest: An eighth rest corresponds to an eighth note in length. It is the first of several rests that look quite similar to one another in their musical notation.

5. Sixteenth note rest: Also called a semiquaver rest, a sixteenth rest looks similar to an eighth rest, but with one extra adornment. It lasts the length of a sixteenth note.

6. Thirty-second note rest: A thirty-second rest follows the pattern of the eighth rest and sixteenth rest. It covers the duration of a thirty-second note. Rests can continue to get smaller from here—the next smallest would be a sixty-fourth note rest—but rather than fill up their sheet music with increasingly brief rests, most composers simply double their tempo, which halves the length of notes and rests.

7. Dotted rests: Any rest followed by a dot has a duration that is one and a half times the length of an un-dotted rest. For instance, a dotted quarter rest would last as long as one and a half quarter rests. You can also think of this length as one-quarter rest plus one additional eighth rest. You can also create a full measure rest for a bar of 6/4 by using a dotted whole rest.

8. Rests with a fermata: If you see a rest with a fermata symbol over it, this means the exact length of the rest is up to your discretion. You can play it exactly as notated, or you can extend the rest for effect. Fermatas almost always come at the end of measures, right before a double barline.

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