How do you draw a quarter rest with a pen/pencil?

Question

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?

Answer 1

From: Music Notation Drawing Rests

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Theory Project 2: Preparing Scores

To draw the quarter rest, draw the right side of a letter “R”, omitting the vertical, or start with a number “2”, but pull the horizontal line down on the right. Put the hook on the bottom and it’s done. The quarter rest is a letter “R” suitable for being placed next to a letter with a vertical right side. It’s right out of Gutenberg’s Bible. The hook on the bottom is merely embellishment.

The “classical” quarter rest is a mirror-reversed 8th rest. Don’t use it.

Some people draw a version of the “S” rest which was introduced in the very early 1800’s to replace the “classical” rest. The “S” rest is like an S or backwards “Z” with the top and bottom concave instead of convex or straight. Another way to draw it is to make a line down and curving left, straight to the right, and then curving left and down. That is the easiest way to start, and I recommend it to you. If you rotate that clockwise you have an “S” rest. Or copy the eighth doubled and backwards. Or chop away half of both curves of a Gutenberg rest.

There is a lot of variation to be found in the quarter rest. The problem with the Gutenberg rest is that it takes too much vertical space and therefore collides with other rests or notes too often. For handwriting music, the Gutenberg rest and the classical rest are the worst, in my opinion.

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Answer 2

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.

Answer 3

I draw a quarter rest using two pen strokes. In the picture below I've used a narrow ballpoint pen. If you use a slightly fatter pen the 2-3 and 4-5 lines will touch, creating the impression that the character was drawn with an italic pen. The change in width is a valuable visual clue and makes it look much more like a printed quarter rest. This is easy to write and looks better than a quarter rest drawn with a single pen stroke. Also, its appearance is more familiar and easier to read than the reverse eighth rest suggested elsewhere.

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

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.

Answer 6

1. Start in the fourth space in the stave. Draw a line that starts going downward and to the right at a near 45° angle, but begin to curve down and toward the left before crossing the fourth line, and then curve back to the original angle when passing the third space. Terminate this line in the second space.
2. Now draw a curved line starting where you left off, make a semicircle arcing towards the top left, terminating in the first space.

(Optional)

3. Draw the first line again, but curve a little later.
4. Draw the second line again making a shallower arc.
5. Shade in.

Answer 7

Clinton Roemer's book "The Art of Music Copying" was the 'bible' for hand copyists for many years. He suggests writing the quarter rest from the bottom upwards:

This version of the rest looks particularly good if drawn using a special music pen (similar to but not quite the same as a calligraphy pen):