Half rest
A half rest is a small filled block sitting on the middle line of the staff. It marks a silence as long as a half note. In Britain it is called a minim rest.
Easily confused with
How to read it
The half rest is the same shape as the whole rest: an oblong block. What tells them apart is where it sits. The half rest sits on top of a line, usually the third (middle) line; the whole rest hangs below the fourth. There is a rest for each note value, and a dot after a half rest lengthens it by half, as it does a note.
Look-alikes
The whole rest is the same block hanging below the line above the middle one. The two differ only in position.
Read next
- Next in Music symbolsQuarter restA quarter rest is a zigzag sign on the staff. It marks a silence as long as a quarter note. In Britain it is called a crotchet rest.
- The same shape in Acura dashboard symbolsAcura Road Departure Mitigation (RDM) indicatorAcura’s Road Departure Mitigation (RDM) indicator comes on when there is a problem with RDM or when the system has shut itself off. RDM is the Acura system that warns, steers and sometimes brakes when the car is about to cross detected lane markings or leave the road.
More music symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols drawn with lines or squares and rectangles.
Sources
- Primer of Facts about Music, M. G. Evans, 1909, Theodore Presser Co. (Internet Archive, University of Toronto), Q. 18–19
- Elements of Music, Harmony, and Musical Form, M. I. Richardson, 1893, Rivington, Percival & Co. (Internet Archive, University of Illinois), Part I, Chapter I, §21
- Elson's Music Dictionary, Louis C. Elson, 1905, Oliver Ditson Company (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library), Minim rest
- SMuFL: Rests, Standard Music Font Layout, glyph table U+E4E0–U+E4FF, W3C Music Notation Community Group, U+E4E4
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. How we research
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