128th rest
A rest sign with the value of 1/128 of a whole note. It carries five flags and lasts as long as the 128th note. A rest is part of the rhythm and is counted exactly like a note.
- Duration
- 1/128 of a whole note
- Corresponding note
- 128th note
- Flags on the sign
- 5
- Number per quarter note
- 32
Every note value has a rest of the same duration. The series of rests follows the same halving as the series of notes: a whole rest lasts as long as two half rests, these as long as two quarter rests and so on. The 128th rest comes at the short end of the series.
The ladder of rests from the whole rest to the 128th
Each rest lasts half as long as the one before. From the eighth rest on the sign gets one more flag with each halving, the last rest has five. Rests are silent, so there is nothing to listen to here.
How to recognise it
From the eighth rest on the sign carries flags, like the corresponding note. The number of flags gives the value: one for the eighth, two for the sixteenth and so on. For the 128th there are five. If you know the series, you need not learn the sign by heart but can derive it.
| Rest | Duration | Flags |
|---|---|---|
| Eighth rest | 1/8 | 1 |
| Sixteenth rest | 1/16 | 2 |
| Thirty-second rest | 1/32 | 3 |
| Sixty-fourth rest | 1/64 | 4 |
| 128th rest | 1/128 | 5 |
Counting rests
Rests are counted exactly like notes. A rest is an active duration, not a gap: if you swallow it, everything that follows shifts. With very short rest values such as the 128th you do not count each value singly but combine them in your head into the next larger unit. 32 128th rests make a quarter rest.
Lengthening and bar rest
Like a note, a rest too can be lengthened with a dot. Only the whole rest has a special role: it stands as a bar rest for a whole empty bar, whatever the time signature. The shorter rest values occur mainly in passages that are notated in very small detail.
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Related terms
128th noteSixteenth restEighth restQuarter restWhole restHalf restRestNote value
Editor: Maik Krohm · reviewed on 3 October 2026
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