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It seems to me that the quarter rest we see everywhere was drawn with a calligraphy pen. I don't have one of those - I have a sharpened/mechanical pencil or a ball-point pen. So usually when I try to imitate the shape of a quarter rest, it looks a lot like a 3.

What is a proper/accepted "thin" version of the quarter rest symbol?

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This is an interesting question. I gave up on finding an accepted form years ago; I just make a consistent scribble. –  Babu Jun 6 '11 at 9:54
It looks to me like it was drawn with a quill. The calligraphy pens I've used would have to be held in the left hand to draw this (not that that rules it out). –  Matthew Read Jun 6 '11 at 20:06

4 Answers 4

up vote 43 down vote accepted


Qurater OR Crochet rest






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I am looking at this, and to remember position, I see that there are basically 3 characters that are centered on each of the 3 middle lines: First a backslash \ , then a left angle bracket < and at last a little C c. –  awe Feb 28 '12 at 9:32
When drawing this, my instructor would always have me say "zig, zag, zig, c", and for some reason it really helped. –  Tanaki Nov 22 '13 at 21:05

In Britain we would simply draw a lower case z in the middle of the stave, and this is considered legible. It's what we teach children, too.

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I was always taught to write a slanted 2 and then make a c below it.

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I was taught to use a lower case z with a lower case c under it, with the bottom of the z touching the top of the c.

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This is good for remembering the form and number of line segments to use, and if you additionally "stretch" the z so the top and bottom lines have an angle instead of drawing them horizontally, it looks better (and is basically closer to the answer by mplungjan). –  awe Sep 9 '11 at 8:52

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