Rests - North Tyneside Brass in Schools

Part of our section on Musical Notation where we look at the elements of a music score.

This page follows on from our page on articulation

As well as showing the notes to be played and for how long, we also need to show when not to play a note.

This is known as a “rest”.

Oh great, at last, I get to put my feet up and have a rest. Chill time!

NOOOO! Resting is the last thing you should be doing when you see a rest – you need to count the beats in your head while not playing so you know when to play the next note that follows! Come on – wake up – you missed your entry!

This table shows the common types of rest:

Dotted rests

You may have noticed that some of rests in the table have a dot after them and are called “dotted” rests.

A dot after a rest symbol tells us to add half the value of the rest to it’s normal value.

For example a dotted crotchet rest is a crotchet rest (one beat in 4 4 time) with half a crotchet rest added, making it one and a half beats or the same length as 3 tied quaver rests.

Breve rests

You may have read our comments about the breve note on our page about note values where we said you will rarely if ever see one?

Well interestingly you might come across a breve rest or even a double breve rest! This is because music can contain long passages of rests for some instruments. Not every instrument in am orchestra or band is playing all the time.

Here are 2 ways to show a passage of 7 bars rest. The first one is the old fashioned way with a double breve rest (4 bars), a breve rest (2 bars) and a whole bar rest (1 bar). The second one is the more modern way with a long rest mark and the number of bars above:

Rest name	Rest symbol	Number of beats (in 4 4 time signature)	Same as	Alternative name
crotchet rest		1 beat	half a minim rest 2 quaver rests	quarter note rest
minim rest		2 beats	2 crotchet rests half a semi-breve rest	half note rest
semi-breve rest		4 beats	4 crotchet rests 2 minim rests	whole note rest
quaver rest		half a beat	half a crotchet rest 2 semi quaver rests	eighth note rest
semi quaver rest		1/4 of a beat	half a quaver rest quarter of a crotchet rest	sixteenth note rest
dotted crotchet rest		a beat and a half	3 quaver rests	dotted quarter note rest
dotted minim rest		3 beats	3 crotchet rests	dotted half note rest
dotted quaver rest		3/4 of a beat	3 semi quavers	dotted eighth note rest
breve rest		8 beats	2 semi breves	double whole note rest