## Whole Rest

A whole rest is a small filled rectangle hanging below the fourth line of the staff. It means silence for a whole measure.

It means the whole bar off, whatever the time signature says — a whole rest in 3/4 is three beats of silence, not four. That is the one exception worth remembering about rests.


## How To Spot Whole Rest

A little block hanging *under* a line. The half rest is the same shape sitting *on* a line, which is the pair everyone mixes up.


## Find It In Thirty Seconds

Find a whole rest and count the full measure out loud while playing nothing. Silence is part of the music, and counting through it is how it stays in time.

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.