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Navigate music notation Time to get score savvy and stay on track
Navigate music notation
Time to get score savvy and stay on track through notation with repeats and endings
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Learning to read music is like learning a different language. There are so many different directions, most of them in Italian, and it can get confusing when you’re faced with a page of music peppered with markings and symbols. It can get especially sticky when certain tunes require you to double-back on yourself and repeat sections over and over. Where do you start from and how do you know what to repeat?
The good news for beginners is that once you understand the theory behind all this melodious jiggery-pokery, you’ll realise that all it takes is the memorising of a few key attributes to keep you flowing through the bars.
The first aspect to grasp is bar lines and what different ones mean. Then codas and segno signs step in. These symbols, alongside some Italian directions that we will cover in more detail soon, will give you a clear idea of what notes and bars to repeat and when.
The last things that you’ll need to recognise when navigating your way around a piece of sheet music are first and second time lines. These bars show you when there are alternate endings to a tune or part of a tune. In time and with a bit of practice, you’ll know exactly what you need to play and where.
It’s best to think about these symbols as more like road signs on a stave. They’ll point you in the right direction and then you’ll be playing beautifully in no time.
Repeats and endings
Get to grips with the bare essentials of what to play, when and where
01 Repeat bar lines
These types of bar line instruct you to repeat parts of the music. Start-repeat bars have dots on the right and end-repeat have dots on the left. Play bars 1–3, repeat bars 2-3, then simply carry on.
02 Coda and segno
These symbols are markers, used alongside Italian terms to show you where in the music to play from or jump to. The coda symbol looks like a cross through a circle and the segno symbol looks like a crossed S with two dots.
03 DS and DC
Complementing the symbols are the Italian phrasings dal segno (DS) which means ‘from the sign’ (which is the Segno symbol), and da capo (DC) which means ‘from the beginning’. These can be accompanied by other phrases.
04 Further instructions
D.C. al Fine means you should go back to the start until you reach the word ‘Fine’ (pronouned feen-ay). Once you get to Fine the piece will then end. If the D.C. al Fine instruction is not accompanied by Fine then just play until the end.
Skipping about the stave
The key elements to recognise for musical repeats
Repeat bars When you see this style of bar line, repeat all of the music either from the beginning or that you can see sandwiched between the two start- and end-repeat bars
Double repeat bars This is simply a start-repeat and end-repeat bar sitting back-to-back on the stave. It signifies the end of one repeat phrase but also the beginning of another
Time bars These first and second time bar lines indicate alternate endings. When you see these, you play the music as normal and then play the notes under the first time bar
Top tip Keeping it simple The Italian abbreviations are simpler to use than English, eg the phrase ‘DC al coda’ essentially means ‘repeat from the beginning, until you reach a coda symbol (or phrase al coda) then jump forward to the next coda symbol to continue playing’.
Alternate endings See the repeat bar? Once you’ve played the notes under the first time bar, you play the repeated phrases, skip the first time bar and finish with the second time bar
Time bars
Playing musical repetition and alternate endings is easy
Another form of repetition comes in the form of first and second time bars. These are numbered brackets that appear above the notes and change the ending of a repeated passage. The first time the passage is played you play the notation under the first time bar. Then when the passage is repeated, you skip the notes in the first time bar and only play the notes in the second time bar. They don’t just come in 1. and 2. form either. For example, you would use 1. 2. 3. and 4. to play something through four times yet only use a different ending the fourth time.
