Music literacySymbols

Composers use a range of signs and symbols to convey how they want their music to be played. Learning to recognise these instructions is an important skill to develop.

Part of MusicUnderstanding music

Symbols

It's important to be able to recognise certain symbols in music.

A tie joins together two notes of the same pitch. It means the note is played once and held for the value of both notes, rather than the note being played twice:

Tie symbol - a curve that bridges the heads of two notes
A tie symbol

Other signs refer to repeats in the music. A repeat sign, shown below, means a section of music is repeated:

A repeat symbol, a colon, thin vertical line and second, thicker vertical line

Sometimes the bars before and after repeat signs are only heard on one playing. This is shown using 1st and 2nd time bars. In the example below, bars 1, 2, 3 and 4 are played, then on the repeat bars 1, 2 and 3 are played followed by bar 5:

5 bars of music, with repeats in bar 4 and 5. Above bar 4 a closed bracket with 1. Above bar 5 an open bracket with 2.
Repeat symbols (seen with the brackets 1. and 2.)

'Ode to Joy' from Symphony No 9 in D Minor by Ludwig van Beethoven

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