An eighth rest is a small slanted stroke with a single flag, meaning half a beat of silence.
Like notes, rests gain a flag for each halving: one flag is an eighth, two flags is a sixteenth. The count is the same as reading a beam.
How to spot it
A short diagonal line with one little hook at the top, sitting in the middle of the staff.
Find it in thirty seconds
Find an eighth rest on an off-beat and count "one-and" through the beat, resting exactly on the "and".
Open any piece of sheet music on this site and do it now. Reading is a recognition skill, and recognition is built by finding things, not by reading about them.
Related Topics...
How to Read Sheet Music: Learn how to read sheet music using interactive lessons from Chordzy. Or browse our various reading music topics.
Music Notation Glossary: Every symbol on a page of piano music, explained in one sentence each, clefs, note values, rests, accidentals, dynamics and repeat marks.
Eighth Note: Eighth Note in piano music. An eighth note is a filled note head with a stem and one flag, and it lasts half a beat in common time. Two of them fill one quarte…
Quarter Rest: A quarter rest in piano music: how to spot the squiggle, and a thirty-second hunt for one on a real page.
Sixteenth Note: Sixteenth Note in piano music. A sixteenth note has two flags (or two beams) and lasts a quarter of a beat in common time. Four of them fit into one quarter-no…
More in This Section
Fermata: Fermata in piano music. A fermata, the dot under an arc, sometimes called a bird's eye, means hold the note or rest longer than its written value, for as long…
Fingering Numbers: Fingering Numbers in piano music. The small numbers above or below notes are fingering: 1 is the thumb, 2 the index finger, and so on to 5 for the little finge…
Readers Also Look For
Half Rest: Half Rest in piano music. A half rest is a small filled rectangle sitting on top of the middle line of the staff. It means two beats of silence in common time.
