Rest (music) - Definition and Overview

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 the multiple measure rest, four measure rest, double whole rest (or breve rest), whole rest (or semibreve rest), half rest (minim rest), quarter rest (crotchet rest), eighth rest (quaver rest), sixteenth rest (semiquaver rest), thirty-second rest (demisemiquaver rest) and sixty-fourth rest (hemidemisemiquaver rest).