Rests: music symbols explained

10 symbols and terms, each explained in a sentence or two — the same dictionary the free Artform score reader uses when you tap a marking on a real score.

Semibreve restalso called Whole rest

A silent bar, drawn as a small block hanging below the fourth line. In most music it means the whole bar off whatever the time signature says.

Minim restalso called Half rest

Two beats of silence: the same small block, sitting ON the third line rather than hanging below the fourth.

Crotchet restalso called Quarter rest

One beat of silence. The squiggle, and the one worth learning to draw.

Quaver restalso called Eighth rest

Half a beat of silence: a stroke with one hook, matching the single flag of the note it silences.

Breve rest

Two bars of silence, drawn as a block filling the space between the second and third lines.

Semiquaver rest

A quarter of a beat of silence: the stroke with two hooks.

Demisemiquaver rest

An eighth of a beat of silence, with three hooks.

Dotted rest

A dot after a rest lengthens it exactly as it lengthens a note: half as much again.

Multi-bar rest

A thick horizontal block with a number over it: that many bars of nothing. Count them, or lose your place.

Whole bar rest

The semibreve rest used to mean the WHOLE bar, whatever the time signature. It is a three-beat rest in three-four, which the symbol itself never tells you.

The rest of the dictionary