The Rest

A rest, as the name suggests, is a period of silence.

Every note duration has an equivalent in rests.
To make it as easy as possible, Let’s have a look at those side by side.

The Semibreve Rest

The Semibreve rest is a small rectangle drawn down from the fourth line.

The Minim Rest

The Minim rest is a small rectangle drawn up from the third line.

The Crochet Rest

The Crochet rest resembles the shape of a Crochet and is therefore easily recognisable.

The Quaver Rest

Just as with notes , rests shorter than a crochet have flags. The Quaver rest has one flag.

The Semiquaver Rest

The Semiquaver rest has two flags.

Example

In Mozart’s famous Sonata in C Major, we’re in 4/4 time.
The last beats of bar 2 and bar 4 are crochet rests.