Rest values

Sometimes, silence is better than unmeaning words. (Pythagoras)

In music, when you play nothing and when you have a moment of rest, it means that you have rests symbols on your score.

Rest values are like note values:

Signs	Names
	Double-whole rest Breve rest
	Whole rest Semibreve rest
	Half rest Minim rest
or	Quarter rest Crotchet rest
	Eighth rest Quaver rest
	Sixteenth rest Semiquaver rest
	Thirty-second rest Demisemiquaver rest
	Sixty-fourth rest Hemidemisemiquaver rest
	One hundred and twenty-eighth rest Semihemidemisemiquaver rest

Note that the quarter rest (crotchet rest ) can be written in two different ways: or

Rest signs equivalences

For Americans :

One Double-whole rest is equivalent to Whole rests
One Whole rest is equivalent to Half rests
One Half rest is equivalent to Quarter rests
One Quarter rest is equivalent to Eighth rests
One Eighth rest is equivalent to Sixteenth rests
One Sixteenth rest is equivalent to Thirty-second rests
One Thirty-second rest is equivalent to Sixty-fourth rests
One Sixty-fourth rest is equivalent to One hundred and twenty-eighth rests


For British :

One Breve rest is equivalent to Semibreve rests
One Semibreve rest is equivalent to Minim rests
One Minim rest is equivalent to Crotchet rests
One Crotchet rest is equivalent to Quaver rests
One Quaver rest is equivalent to Semiquaver rests
One Semiquaver rest is equivalent to Demisemiquaver rests
One Demisemiquaver rest is equivalent to Hemidemisemiquaver rests
One Hemidemisemiquaver rest is equivalent to Semihemidemisemiquaver rests

Empty measures (bars )

There is a tolerance for empty measures (empty bars ), they can be filled with inaccurate rest values:

Multiple measure rests

Instead of writing this:



we prefer this: