Rest (music)

A rest is an interval of silence in a piece of music, marked by a sign indicating the length of the pause. It is generally said that the pauses in a piece of music are as important as the notes.

In modern western musical notation, the most common rests (in descending order of length) are:

• long rest / four measure rest (not shown)
• double whole rest / breve rest
• whole rest / semibreve rest
• half rest / minim rest
• quarter rest / crotchet rest
• eighth rest / quaver rest
• sixteenth rest / semiquaver rest
• thirty-second rest / demisemiquaver rest
• sixty-fourth rest / hemidemisemiquave rest

The combination of rests used to mark a pause follows the same rules as for notes. For more details see note value.

Bar rest

When a single measure contains no notes, a semibreve (whole) rest is used, regardless of the actual time signature. The only exception is for a 4/2 time signature (four mimims per bar), when a breve rest is typically used for a bar's rest.

Multiple measure rest

In instrumental parts, rests of more than one measure may be indicated with a multiple measure rest, showing the number of measures of rest, as shown. Typically the rest symbol itself is a horizontal bar with serifs on the end, but for shorter rests (8 measures or less) breve or long rests may be used.