## Music Notation Symbols

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

- [Staff](/about/music-notation/staff.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/grand-staff.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/treble-clef.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/bass-clef.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/ledger-lines.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/middle-c.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/bar-line.md) — 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)](/about/music-notation/measure.md) — 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

- [Whole Note](/about/music-notation/whole-note.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/half-note.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/quarter-note.md) — A quarter note is a filled-in note head with a stem, and it lasts one beat in common time.
- [Eighth Note](/about/music-notation/eighth-note.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/sixteenth-note.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/dotted-note.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/tie.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/triplet.md) — 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

- [Whole Rest](/about/music-notation/whole-rest.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/half-rest.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/quarter-rest.md) — A quarter rest is the squiggle that means one beat of silence in common time.
- [Eighth Rest](/about/music-notation/eighth-rest.md) — An eighth rest is a small slanted stroke with a single flag, meaning half a beat of silence.


## Pitch And Accidentals

- [Sharp](/about/music-notation/sharp.md) — A sharp (♯) raises a note by one semitone — the very next key to the right, black or white.
- [Flat](/about/music-notation/flat.md) — A flat (♭) lowers a note by one semitone — the very next key to the left, black or white.
- [Natural Sign](/about/music-notation/natural.md) — A natural (♮) cancels a sharp or a flat, returning the note to its unaltered pitch for the rest of the measure.
- [Accidental](/about/music-notation/accidental.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/double-sharp.md) — A double sharp (𝄪, written like an x) raises a note by two semitones — two keys to the right.
- [Double Flat](/about/music-notation/double-flat.md) — A double flat (♭♭) lowers a note by two semitones — two keys to the left.
- [Octave Sign (8va)](/about/music-notation/octave-sign.md) — 8va above a passage means play it one octave higher than written; 8vb below means one octave lower. The dashed line shows how far the instruction lasts.


## Time And Key

- [Time Signature](/about/music-notation/time-signature.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/key-signature.md) — 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)](/about/music-notation/anacrusis.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/tempo-marking.md) — 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

- [Dynamics](/about/music-notation/dynamics.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/crescendo.md) — A crescendo means get gradually louder. It is written as cresc. or as a hairpin that opens to the right.
- [Diminuendo (Decrescendo)](/about/music-notation/diminuendo.md) — A diminuendo means get gradually softer. It is written as dim., decresc., or a hairpin that closes to the right.
- [Staccato](/about/music-notation/staccato.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/legato.md) — Legato means play smoothly and connected, with each note lasting until the next one begins.
- [Slur](/about/music-notation/slur.md) — A slur is a curved line over a group of notes at different pitches, meaning play them smoothly and connected as one phrase.
- [Accent](/about/music-notation/accent.md) — An accent (>) above or below a note means play that note louder than the ones around it.
- [Fermata](/about/music-notation/fermata.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/pedal-marking.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/fingering-numbers.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/chord-symbol.md) — 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

- [Repeat Sign](/about/music-notation/repeat-sign.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/first-and-second-endings.md) — 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.)](/about/music-notation/da-capo.md) — 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.)](/about/music-notation/dal-segno.md) — 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](/about/music-notation/coda.md) — 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.