Music Notation Glossary

Every symbol below gets one page, and every page opens with the answer. If you have a piece of music in front of you and one mark on it is stopping you, find it here, read one sentence, and go back to playing.

Notation looks like a lot until you notice it only tells you four things: which note, how long, how loud, and where to go next. Every symbol on the page is one of those four. Group them that way and the list stops being intimidating.

The Staff and Clefs

Symbol	What it means
Staff	The staff is the set of five horizontal lines that piano music is written on. A note's vertical position on those lines and the spaces between them tells you which pitch to play.
Grand Staff	The grand staff is the pair of staves piano music is written on: treble clef on top for the right hand, bass clef underneath for the left, joined by a brace.
Treble Clef	The treble clef is the curled symbol at the start of the upper staff. It fixes the second line from the bottom as G above middle C, which is why it is also called the G clef.
Bass Clef	The bass clef is the symbol at the start of the lower staff. Its two dots sit either side of the fourth line up, fixing that line as F below middle C, hence its other name, the F clef.
Ledger Lines	Ledger lines are the short lines added above or below a staff to carry notes that are too high or too low to fit on it. Each one continues the pattern of lines and spaces.
Middle C	Middle C is the C nearest the middle of the piano, and the note that sits on its own little ledger line between the two staves of piano music.
Bar Line	A bar line is the vertical line crossing the staff that divides music into measures. A double bar line marks the end of a section, and a thick double bar marks the end of the piece.
Measure (Bar)	A measure, also called a bar, is the space between two bar lines. The time signature says how many beats each measure holds.

Note Values

Symbol	What it means
Whole Note	A whole note is a hollow note head with no stem, and it lasts four beats in common time, a full measure of 4/4.
Half Note	A half note is a hollow note head with a stem, and it lasts two beats in common time, half a whole note.
Quarter Note	A quarter note is a filled-in note head with a stem, and it lasts one beat in common time.
Eighth Note	An eighth note is a filled note head with a stem and one flag, and it lasts half a beat in common time. Two of them fill one quarter-note beat.
Sixteenth Note	A sixteenth note has two flags (or two beams) and lasts a quarter of a beat in common time. Four of them fit into one quarter-note beat.
Dotted Note	A dot after a note head adds half of that note's value again. A dotted half note lasts three beats; a dotted quarter lasts one and a half.
Tie	A tie is a curved line joining two notes of the same pitch. You play the first one and hold it through the second, rather than playing it again.
Triplet	A triplet is three notes played in the time of two of the same value, marked with a small 3 above or below the group.

Rests

Symbol	What it means
Whole Rest	A whole rest is a small filled rectangle hanging below the fourth line of the staff. It means silence for a whole measure.
Half Rest	A half rest is a small filled rectangle sitting on top of the middle line of the staff. It means two beats of silence in common time.
Quarter Rest	A quarter rest is the squiggle that means one beat of silence in common time.
Eighth Rest	An eighth rest is a small slanted stroke with a single flag, meaning half a beat of silence.

Pitch and Accidentals

Symbol	What it means
Sharp	A sharp (♯) raises a note by one semitone, the very next key to the right, black or white.
Flat	A flat (♭) lowers a note by one semitone, the very next key to the left, black or white.
Natural Sign	A natural (♮) cancels a sharp or a flat, returning the note to its unaltered pitch for the rest of the measure.
Accidental	An accidental is any sharp, flat or natural written in front of a note, changing its pitch for the rest of that measure.
Double Sharp	A double sharp (𝄪, written like an x) raises a note by two semitones, two keys to the right.
Double Flat	A double flat (♭♭) lowers a note by two semitones, two keys to the left.
Octave Sign (8va)	The meaning of 8va above a passage: play it one octave higher than written. 8vb below means one octave lower, and the dashed line shows how far the instruction lasts.

Time and Key

Symbol	What it means
Time Signature	The time signature is the pair of numbers after the clef. The top number says how many beats are in each measure; the bottom says which note value gets one beat.
Key Signature	The key signature is the group of sharps or flats just after the clef. It applies to every note of those letter names, in every octave, for the whole piece.
Pickup (Anacrusis)	A pickup, also called an anacrusis, is an incomplete measure at the start of a piece, holding the note or notes that lead into the first full bar.
Tempo Marking	A tempo marking is the word or metronome number at the top of a piece saying how fast to play it. Andante, Allegro, or something like ♩ = 96.

How to Play It

Symbol	What it means
Dynamics	Dynamics are the letters under the staff telling you how loud to play: p is soft, f is loud, and mp and mf are the moderate versions of each.
Crescendo	A crescendo means get gradually louder. It is written as cresc. or as a hairpin that opens to the right.
Diminuendo (Decrescendo)	A diminuendo means get gradually softer. It is written as dim., decresc., or a hairpin that closes to the right.
Staccato	A staccato dot above or below a note head means play it short and detached, roughly half its written length, with silence filling the rest.
Legato	Legato means play smoothly and connected, with each note lasting until the next one begins.
Slur	A slur is a curved line over a group of notes at different pitches, meaning play them smoothly and connected as one phrase.
Accent	An accent (>) above or below a note means play that note louder than the ones around it.
Fermata	A fermata, the dot under an arc, sometimes called a bird's eye, means hold the note or rest longer than its written value, for as long as the music seems to want.
Pedal Marking	A pedal marking tells you when to press and release the sustain pedal: Ped. where it goes down, an asterisk or the end of a bracket where it comes up.
Fingering Numbers	The small numbers above or below notes are fingering: 1 is the thumb, 2 the index finger, and so on to 5 for the little finger, the same numbering on both hands.
Chord Symbol	A chord symbol is the letter name printed above the staff. C, Am, G7, naming the harmony so you can play it your own way rather than note for note.

Where to Go Next

Symbol	What it means
Repeat Sign	A repeat sign is a double bar line with two dots. Play up to it, then go back to the matching sign facing the other way, or to the beginning if there is none, and play the section again.
First and Second Endings	First and second endings are the bracketed bars marked 1. and 2. Play the first ending, take the repeat, then skip it and play the second ending instead.
Da Capo (D.C.)	D.C. means go back to the beginning. D.C. al Fine means go back and stop at the word Fine; D.C. al Coda means go back and jump to the coda when you reach the coda sign.
Dal Segno (D.S.)	D.S. means go back to the sign (𝄋), not to the beginning. D.S. al Coda means go back to the sign and then jump to the coda when you reach the coda mark.
Coda	A coda is the ending section of a piece, marked with a circle-and-cross symbol. You jump to it from a To Coda mark after taking a D.C. or D.S. repeat.