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.
There is no fixed length. A fermata at the end of a phrase is usually about double; one at the end of a piece can be much longer. It is one of the few places notation hands the decision to the player.
How To Spot Fermata
A semicircle with a dot underneath, sitting above a note or rest.
Find It In Thirty Seconds
Find a fermata, play up to it, and hold the note while counting to four. Then try eight. One of them will sound right and the other will not.
Open any piece of sheet music on this site and do it now. Reading is a recognition skill, and recognition is built by finding things, not by reading about them.
Related Topics...
How to Read Sheet Music: Learn how to read sheet music using interactive lessons from Chordzy. Or browse our various reading music topics.
Music Notation Glossary: Every symbol on a page of piano music, explained in one sentence each — clefs, note values, rests, accidentals, dynamics and repeat marks.
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.
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.
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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.