The same small rectangle. Which side of a staff line it touches is the entire difference.
Look at the line. A rectangle hanging *below* the fourth line is a whole rest; one sitting *on top of* the third line is a half rest. The shapes are identical, so position is the only information — and a whole rest means a whole bar's silence whatever the time signature, which makes it the one rest whose length is not fixed.
The same rectangle, on the other side of a line.
| Half rest | Whole rest | |
|---|---|---|
| Position | Sits on top of the third line | Hangs below the fourth line |
| Length | Two beats | A whole bar, whatever the metre |
| Shape | Small filled rectangle | Small filled rectangle — identical |
| British name | Minim rest | Semibreve rest |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Whole rest — The same rectangle, on the other side of a line. | Commonly confused with Half rest — Identical rectangles; only whether it hangs below a line or sits on one tells them apart. |
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for what a mark instructs a performer to do and for uncontested history, never for a claim that any body defines staff notation.
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for what a mark instructs a performer to do and for uncontested history, never for a claim that any body defines staff notation.
Both are drawn as one continuous decorative stroke with a closed loop and a tail that crosses back over itself, which is why a description of the shape alone reaches both. The clef is far taller, spans a stave, and its spiral encircles one specific line — that encircled line is the note G, and it is the only reason the shape is drawn where it is.
Check where the dot sits. A dot immediately to the right of the notehead adds half the note's value again — a dotted half note lasts three beats. A dot directly above or below the head means staccato: play it short and detached. One dot, two opposite instructions, and only position distinguishes them.
They occupy the same place and are read the same way. A C means four-four; two stacked numerals state any metre explicitly. The C is not an abbreviation of the word 'common' — it descends from a broken circle used in medieval notation to mean imperfect time, and a full circle meant threefold time.
Length is the tell. A crescendo hairpin is drawn long, below a stave, and spans the passage it applies to — its extent *is* the instruction. A less-than sign is one character wide and sits between two values. If it stretches, it is music; if it fits between two numbers, it is mathematics.