Musical symbols are marks and symbols in musical notation that indicate various aspects of how a piece of music is to be performed. There are symbols to communicate information about many musical elements, including pitch,

duration Duration may refer to: * The amount of time elapsed between two events * Duration (music) – an amount of time or a particular time interval, often cited as one of the fundamental aspects of music * Duration (philosophy) – a theory of time and ...

, dynamics, or articulation of

musical note In music, a note is the representation of a musical sound. Notes can represent the pitch and duration of a sound in musical notation. A note can also represent a pitch class. Notes are the building blocks of much written music: discretizatio ...

tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...

metre The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...

form Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens. Form also refers to: *Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data ...

(e.g., whether sections are repeated), and details about specific playing techniques (e.g., which fingers, keys, or pedals are to be used, whether a string instrument should be bowed or plucked, or whether the bow of a string instrument should move up or down).

Lines

Clefs

A clef assigns one particular pitch to one particular line of the staff on which it is placed. This also effectively defines the pitch range or

tessitura In music, tessitura (, pl. ''tessiture'', "texture"; ) is the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a given singer or less frequently, musical instrument, the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding (or characte ...

of the music on that staff. A clef is usually the leftmost symbol on a staff, although a different clef may appear elsewhere to indicate a change in register. Historically, clefs could be placed on any line on a staff (or even on a space), but modern notation almost exclusively uses treble, bass, alto, and tenor clef.

Rhythmic values of notes and rests

In American usage,

Musical note In music, a note is the representation of a musical sound. Notes can represent the pitch and duration of a sound in musical notation. A note can also represent a pitch class. Notes are the building blocks of much written music: discretizatio ...

and

rest Rest or REST may refer to: Relief from activity * Sleep ** Bed rest * Kneeling * Lying (position) * Sitting * Squatting position Structural support * Structural support ** Rest (cue sports) ** Armrest ** Headrest ** Footrest Arts and enter ...

values have names that indicate their length relative to a whole note. A half note is half the length of a whole note, a quarter note is one quarter the length, etc.

Breaks

Accidentals and key signatures

Common accidentals

Accidentals In music, an accidental is a note of a pitch (or pitch class) that is not a member of the scale or mode indicated by the most recently applied key signature. In musical notation, the sharp (), flat (), and natural () symbols, among others, ma ...

modify the pitch of the notes that follow them on the same staff position within a measure, unless cancelled by an additional accidental.

Key signatures

Key signature In Western musical notation, a key signature is a set of sharp (), flat (), or rarely, natural () symbols placed on the staff at the beginning of a section of music. The initial key signature in a piece is placed immediately after the clef a ...

s indicate which notes are to be played as sharps or flats in the music that follows, showing up to seven sharps or flats. Notes that are shown as sharp or flat in a key signature will be played that way in every octave—e.g., a key signature with a B indicates that every B is played as a B. A key signature indicates the prevailing

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

of the music and eliminates the need to use accidentals for the notes that are always flat or sharp in that key. A key signature with no flats or sharps generally indicates the key of C major or A minor, but can also indicate that pitches will be notated with accidentals as required. The key signature examples shown here are as they would appear in treble clef. Flat key signatures Key-Signatures-flats

Sharp key signatures Key-Signatures-sharps

Microtones

There is no universally accepted notation for

microtonal music Microtonal music or microtonality is the use in music of microtones— intervals smaller than a semitone, also called "microintervals". It may also be extended to include any music using intervals not found in the customary Western tuning of ...

, with varying systems being used depending on the situation. A common notation for quarter tones involves writing the fraction ' next to an arrow pointing up or down. Below are other forms of notation: A symbol with one vertical and three diagonal bars indicates a sharp with some form of alternate tuning. Notation of partials 1-19 for 1-1

19 equal temperament In music, 19 Tone Equal Temperament, called 19 TET, 19 EDO ("Equal Division of the Octave"), or 19 ET, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 19 equal steps (equal frequency ratios). Each step represent ...

, where a whole tone is divided into three steps instead of two, music is typically notated in a way that flats and sharps are not usually enharmonic (thus a C represents a third of a step lower than D); this has the advantage of not requiring any nonstandard notation.

Time signatures

Most music has a rhythmic pulse with a uniform number of beats—each segment of this pulse is shown as a measure. Time signatures indicate the number of beats in each measure (the top number) and also show what type of note represents a single beat (the bottom number). There may be any number of beats in a measure but the most common by far are multiples of 2 and/or 3 (i.e., 2, 3, 4, and 6). Likewise, any note length can be used to represent a beat, but a quarter note (indicated by a bottom number of "4") or eighth note (bottom number of "8") are by far the most common.

Note relationships

Dynamics

Dynamics are indicators of the relative intensity or volume of a musical line. Rarely, even softer or louder dynamic levels are indicated by adding more s or s. While is called "''pianississimo''" and is called "''fortississimo''", these words (formed by adding an additional "iss") are not proper Italian. Dynamics are relative, and the meaning of each level is at the discretion of the performer or the conductor. Laws to curb high noise levels in the workplace have changed the interpretation of very loud dynamics in some large orchestral works, as noise levels within the orchestra itself can easily exceed safe levels.

Articulation marks

Articulations specify the length, volume, and style of attack of individual notes. This category includes

accents Accent may refer to: Speech and language * Accent (sociolinguistics), way of pronunciation particular to a speaker or group of speakers * Accent (phonetics), prominence given to a particular syllable in a word, or a word in a phrase ** Pitch acce ...

. Articulations can be combined with one another and may appear in conjunction with phrasing marks (above). Any of these markings may be placed either above or below a note.

Ornaments

Ornaments modify the pitch pattern of individual notes.

Octave signs

''8^va'' and ''15^ma'' are sometimes abbreviated further to ''8'' and ''15''. When they appear below the staff, the word ''bassa'' is sometimes added.

Repetition and codas

Instrument-specific notation

Bowed string instruments

Guitar

The guitar has a

fingerpicking Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with a single plectr ...

notation system derived from the names of the fingers in Spanish or Latin. They are written above, below, or beside the note to which they are attached. They read as follows:

Piano

Pedal marks

Pedal marks appear in music for instruments with

sustain pedal A sustain pedal or sustaining pedal (also called damper pedal, loud pedal, or open pedal) is the most commonly used pedal in a modern piano. It is typically the rightmost of two or three pedals. When pressed, the sustain pedal "sustains" all ...

s, such as the

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist ...

and

chimes Tubular bells (also known as chimes) are musical instruments in the percussion family. Their sound resembles that of church bells, carillon, or a bell tower; the original tubular bells were made to duplicate the sound of church bells within a ...

Other piano notation

Old (pre-1940) tutors published in the UK may use "English fingering". + for thumb, then 1 (index), 2 (middle), 3 (ring) and 4 (little).

Other stringed instruments

(With the exception of harp) See also Fingerstyle guitar#Notation.

Harp

Fingering numbers are similar to piano, except there is no 5 as the little finger is not used in playing the harp. 1 = thumb, 2 = index finger, 3 = middle finger, 4 = ring finger.

Four-mallet percussion

Six-mallet percussion

Numbers for six-mallet percussion may be reversed as well.

Organ

The organ has many different abbreviations for its keyboards in European languages.

References

External links

Comprehensive list of music symbols fonts
(Dolmetsch Online)

(Dolmetsch Online)
Sight reading tutorial with symbol variations
Amy Appleby {{Musical notation Symbols