What are all these scribblings? Why am I staring at a symbol saying ‘D.S Al Coda’ or gawking at three slashes through each note’s stem when I’m simply trying to play through this violin sheet music? What does it all mean, and, even further, how can I understand each symbol and learn how to incorporate them into my own musical compositions, arrangements, or transcriptions?
Look no further.
This is the ULTIMATE GUIDE to Music Symbols & Their Meanings. Here, you’ll find the most frequently used symbols in music, from fundamental score markings to instrument-specific techniques. You’ll also learn how to best implement them into your own work and ideas, whether you’re a composer, arranger, transcribing instrumentalist, or just a fan of music knowledge! Let’s dive in!
Music Symbols & Their MeaningsMusical symbols are marks in music notation instructing how a piece of music will be performed. Some symbols give information about several different musical elements.
These include but are not limited to pitch, duration, dynamics, or articulation of musical notes, tempo, meter, repeated sections of music, and articulation (method of playing an instrument).
What are all of the symbols, then, and what do they all mean? Well – there are loads of different symbols out there, which means each will he a meaning. So, loads of meanings, then!
We will start by breaking all these symbols into categories, each with an overall meaning for the purpose they serve the music. Here goes!
Category 1 – Lines, Stes, and Brackets
Lines make up the grid on which musical notes are written.
Horizontal lines act as the rungs on and around which to place notes, which indicate different pitches depending on their position.
Vertical lines, like bar lines, provide information on the structure of a piece of music – like when one bar should finish and another should start.
Category 2 – Clefs and Registers
Clefs indicate the ranges of notes an instrument will play within. For example, higher instruments best suit the Treble clef, while instruments with lower ranges best suit the Bass Clef. Some instruments, like the Trombone and Cello, can easily cover both clefs. With music for these instruments, you’ll sometimes see a new clef symbol take over in the middle of a passage.
Category 3 – Note Values
Note values and rests indicate the duration that a single note is to be played for – or, in other words, roughly how long the sounding note should last.
Common note values include the minim (half note), crotchet (quarter note), quer (eight note), and semiquer (sixteenth note). Likewise, each note value has an equivalent rest symbol indicating particular lengths of silence or ‘not playing.’ Different note values and rests are often combined in interesting combinations by composers and arrangers to further a piece’s sense of musical interest. We strongly encourage any composer or arranger reading this to pay attention to how we might add a thoughtful or interesting mix of different note values and rests into the cooking pot to create the most engaging results!
Category 4 – Breaks
Breath Mark
Caesura
Fermata
Breaks include the Caesura and Breath Mark. These slight pauses do not affect the piece’s tempo or the current bar’s time signature but only affect the performance delivery.
Unlike the overhead Fermata (‘pause’) symbol, this is a special break. A Fermata adds an extra duration of half the targeted note’s value.
Category 5 – Key Signatures
Key signatures indicate which notes in the current key are sharp (♯) or flat (♭). A full key signature symbol consists of a double bar line, followed by the set of sharps or flats (‘accidentals’) placed on the staff to the right of the barline.
New key signatures usually occur at the beginning of a section of music. The first key signature appearing in a piece is placed immediately after the clef symbol at the beginning. If the piece contains a section in a different key, the new key signature is placed at the beginning of that section, replacing any now-natural notes with the natural symbol (♮).
Category 6 – Time Signatures
The Time Signature is a symbol that indicates how many beats – of a particular note value – are contained in each bar.
In all notated music, the Time Signature appears after the clef symbol and key signature at the piece’s beginning – or after any other barline if the signature changes in the middle of the piece.
Most Time Signatures are either ‘simple,’ meaning the note values are grouped in pairs, or ‘compound’, meaning grouped in threes. Some Time Signatures are ‘odd,’ meaning the note values are grouped irregularly (usually a mix of 1, 2, or 3 notes per group).
Simple Time Signatures: 4/4, 2/2, 2/4, 3/4 Compound Time Signatures: 6/8, 9/8, 12/8 Odd Time Signatures: 5/8, 7/8, 11/8, 13/8The value on top of the stacked pair of numbers indicates how many beats are in a bar, while the value below indicates the note duration of each beat.
Each time the value below doubles, the note duration becomes twice as short. The most commonly used lower value is 4, indicating crotchets.
Here’s an example of three different lower values and what each of them means:
4/4 = 4 crotchets per bar 3/2 = 3 minims per bar 7/8 = 7 quers per bar Category 7 – Note Relationships
Note relationship symbols include the Slur, Tie, Glissando, Portamento, Tuplet, and Arpeggio.
They each he a different visual design, but they all serve the same purpose: to link certain notes or groups of notes together in some way or another.
Slurs link groups of notes together into conjoined musical phrases:
Ties connect the duration of notes with the same pitch:
A Glissando indicates a sweep of notes from one pitch to another on a keyed or fretted instrument:
A Portamento indicates a slide from one pitch to another on keyless or fretless instruments, e.g., Trombone;
Tuplets group a certain number of notes into sharing the rhythmic value of one beat across whichever number of notes is indicated on top of the overhead bracket. For instance, the number 3 would indicate a Triplet:
Arpeggio symbols indicate that a chord, or group of notes, should be played note-by-note in rapid successions, like a ‘swoosh’ up or down the chord. The direction (up or down) depends on the instructed arrowhead attached to the wiggly line:
Category 8 – Dynamics
Dynamic symbols indicate how loudly or softly a passage of music should be played. They’re placed under the ste for most instruments (above the ste in vocal scores).
Also, they are always positioned just before the moment when the instrument player should employ the instructed shift in volume. This lets the player read and act on the symbol in good time! Crescendos and Decrescendos link two different dynamics together and often use their ‘hairpin’ symbol appearances for visual ease. All other dynamic symbols are expressed with their Common Abbreviation (refer to Column 2 on the above table diagram). Written dynamic symbols are usually expressed in italics.
Category 9 – Articulations
Articulation symbols in music indicate the nature in which a note should be played or delivered. Depending on the instrument, different symbols will create different results for the musical sound. Tremolo is one of the most important articulation symbols – besides the basics, Legato (long) and Staccato (short).
This indicates that the targeted note(s) should be rapidly sounded in a kind of fluttering way, and you can hear it a lot in Horror movie scores in the String instruments:
Perfect for high Violins, low Double Basses – and Timpani for epic, long note rolls! So, here are some instrument recommendations for each Articulation symbol, based on the above table diagram (including Tremolo):
Accents apply to any instrument and always sound pretty great. Forza is best reserved for Brass instruments to achieve a ‘biting’ sound. Glissando sounds magical on fixed-key instruments like Piano and Glockenspiel! Legato can be used with any instrument, a pretty standard playing style. Marcato is the same as an Accent but can apply to an entire passage. Rinforzando is great for String instruments playing Tremolo – gives more force. Sforzando is perfect for Brass instruments, for a big forceful momentary blast. Staccato applies to any instrument, as it just means playing short notes. Staccatissimo is perfect for Woodwinds and Strings for playful or dramatic music. Tenuto is perfect for Woodwinds and brings a ghostly, breathy quality to the note. Category 10 – Repeats and CodaRepeat symbols and Coda symbols are a musician’s way of getting around a piece’s structure without hing every single repeated moment of the music written out in full numerous times. That would be a waste of paper, anyway…
Repeat Sign: Enclose a passage to be played more than once. If there is no left-hand repeat sign, the right-hand repeat sign sends the player back to the start of the piece or the movement. A Repeat Sign looks like:
Simile Marks: Denotes that the preceding group of bars are to be repeated. In the example image below, the first sign usually means to repeat the previous bar. The second usually means to repeat the previous two bars:
Volta brackets (Also referred to as 1st and 2nd endings, or 1st and 2nd-time bars): Volta brackets are found overhead during the final bar before the return to a section’s repeat or the shift to a new section.
For a standard two-piece Volta bracket set, the passage (usually enclosed with repeat marks) will be played with the ending segment demarcated by the ‘1.’ bracket the first time. Then, the second time, the player skips to the ending segment demarcated by the ‘2.’ bracket. The second bracket is usually at the end of a passage, movement, or entire score.
Although two endings are most common, it is possible to he multiple endings – 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. Here’s a pair of Volta brackets (not positioned on a score):
Da Capo: Tells the player to repeat the music from the beginning. This is usually followed by al fine, which means to repeat to the end of the piece, or by al Coda, which means repeat up to the Coda Symbol and then jump forward into the section marked ‘Coda’.
Here is a Da Capo marking:
Dal Segno, or ‘From The Sign’: Tells the performer to repeat the playing of the music starting at the nearest preceding segno. This is followed by al fine, or al coda.
Here is a Dal Segno marking:
Segno, or Sign: The symbol used with Dal Segno markings:
Coda Sign: Indicates a forward jump in the music to its coda (ending passage), which is marked with the same sign. Only used after playing through a D.S. al coda (Dal segno al coda) or D.C. al coda (Da capo al coda).
Special Notation: Extended Techniques
Before we wrap up, let’s look at a few examples of the less common symbols used in music notation. These rarer symbols indicate particular Extended Techniques, which are advanced instrument-playing styles. Extended Techniques often require a huge amount of technical expertise to execute successfully. But hey – they’re cool to know about, at least!
Example 1: Flute – Multiphonics
Did you know, Flute and Trumpet players can play more than one note at once? Well – the really good players can! Multiphonic symbols indicate that the direction of the Flute or Trumpet player’s breath should be split between two target positions. This creates two simultaneously audible (but often quite fuzzy or gritty) pitches. The symbol for a Multiphonic moment is simply more than one note instructed simultaneously on a Flute or Trumpet part.
Quite often, there’s an up or down arrow to the left of one of the notes. This indicates that the player needs to ‘push’ the breath in that direction – up or down – with the correct fingering to achieve the desired additional pitch (multiphonic).
Example 2: Electric Guitar – Tapping
You’ve probably heard of this one before! Despite its popularity in Modern electric guitar music, it’s pretty rare to find Tapping symbols in a standard piece of music notation… unless it’s an Eddie Van Halen tab. The three symbols for Guitar Tapping consist of: H, for ‘hammer-on’ (meaning the guitarist’s fretting finger activates a note without picking it with the other hand); T (for ‘tap’, meaning a finger from the guitarist’s picking hand reaches over and activates a note on the fretboard); and P, for ‘pull-off’ (meaning the guitarist releases one of their fretted notes with enough force to activate the next instructed note on the same string). The notes themselves are grouped with overhead slur symbols, indicating the number of notes to be activated per string before positioning the hands on the next string instructed.
Example 3: Piano – Interior Strings
This one’s super cool. In some Contemporary Classical and Avant Garde piano music, the piano is played not via the keys but on the strings inside the instrument’s body itself! The marking for Interior String piano playing is usually just the phrase ‘Inside the Piano’ below the instrument name(s) for whichever hand(s) are needed to perform such an artsy task (see diagram above).
You’ll find weird lines and symbols all over the place with Interior String piano, along with text instructions on when to damp the notes and how to hit them.
They’re usually pretty simple to follow – the lines just indicate the direction and ranges of the strings to swipe.
Swiping is usually done with a finger or, in the event of soft and delicate hands, a stick that won’t damage the piano. The Interior Strings can also be plucked, like playing Pizzicato on a string instrument.
Example 4: Saxophone – Key Slapping
…And this one’s just weird!!
Wrapping UpWe’ve explored the standard symbols in music and figured out not only what each one means but also how to use them in our own pieces and arrangements!
We encourage any aspiring or practicing musician to use this guide when writing, arranging, or transcribing music.
Whether you’re a fan of the orchestra or not, you’ll see these symbols coming up repeatedly… so let’s be ready for them!
Keep making music, and he fun!
Also, check out:
What Is A Measure In Music? What Is Articulation In Music? What Is A Canon In Music? What Is Tone Color In Music?