#Whole rest sign in music full

The same symbol means different things, depending on where it is written. Really, this is no more confusing that writing a dot after a note to add a half to its duration, and writing a dot above or below a note to shorten it (staccato). The apparent confusion comes from the fact that both 1 and 2 use the same symbol (but written in different places horizontally), and also that whole-note rests are very rare, because the only 'common' time signatures where a bar is longer than a whole note are 3/2 and 4/2, and those have not been used much since about 1800. and is positioned horizontally in the same place as the note would be written, just like any other rest. This has the same length as a whole-note. This is always the same symbol whatever the length of the bar, and it is always positioned horizontally in the middle of the bar.Ī whole-note rest. I think it's better to realize there are two different things here.Ī whole-bar rest. The other answers are using terminology which common, but confusing. NOTE: I specifically mention notes in the question, but I am asking about the standpoint on both notes and rests since I normally think of individual rests as having a specific note that they are equal to in terms of length (if this is an incorrect way of thinking please correct me). So my question is: Is the whole note/rest really used as a note of variable length? If so, how common of a practice is it and how could this possibly be justified?

The half note is equal to 1/2 of the whole note (even though they are both equal to a full measure).

The whole note is equal to a full measure.

The half note is equal to a full measure.

Now for example in 2/4 time that would somehow make all of the following true:

In music, a half note (American) or minim (British) is a note played for half the duration of a whole note (or semibreve) and twice the duration of a quarter note (or crotchet). Ī musical note equal in time to half of a whole note merriam-webster For example, the half note is generally defined as:Ī note equivalent in time value to one half of a whole note minim. Now my biggest issue with this idea stems more from a logical standpoint than a musical standpoint since most of the other notes/rests are defined as a fraction of the whole note. Personally I would use a whole rest, which ought to be understood thanks to the fact that it is already variable (used to represent the length of a bar irrespective of the time signature in most cases), but I don't think that's common practice. On a comment to this question, Matthew Read states: However, there does appear to be more than one person who believes this. I saw this answer and I thought the guy was absolutely crazy for assuming that a whole note automatically equaled one measure regardless of time signature.

#Whole rest sign in music full