Sixteenth rest

Four to a quarter note

The page Rhythm assigns the rests to their notes: whole, half, quarter and eighth rest. The sixteenth rest continues the series on the same principle of halving. The symbol library describes it as “a quarter of a beat of silence”: a diagonal stroke with two flags, four of which fit into a quarter note.

Counting

For sixteenth notes the page Rhythm gives the count “1 e and a 2 e and a”, four equally fast syllables per beat. A sixteenth rest occupies one of these syllables, a quarter of the beat. Rhythm Dictation calls rests a measured stretch of time and advises counting aloud.

Where it occurs

The symbol library names two typical places: quick rests in syncopated passages and dotted figures such as “dotted eighth note, sixteenth rest”. It is indispensable, it says, in jazz-style dotted figures and is found in the double-dotted rhythms of Baroque French overtures.

Piano

• Sonata facile, 1. Satz: Allegro Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, K. 545 · piano · 4 pages

  On page 2, bars 19 to 21 have two sixteenth rests per bar in each hand. In the left hand beats 1 and 3 begin with the rest, followed by a short rising run; in the right hand beats 2 and 4 begin with the rest, followed by a short falling run. The rest means that the run does not start on the beat but a quarter of a beat after it.