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.
The dots always face the music to be repeated. That one detail is enough to read any repeat correctly, including the ones nested inside a longer form.
How to spot it
A thick and thin bar line with two dots stacked either side of the middle line.
Find it in thirty seconds
Find a repeat in any piece and trace the route with a finger before playing: forward to the sign, back to its partner, forward again. Sight-reading repeats wrong is a navigation problem, not a playing one.
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.
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First and Second Endings: First and Second Endings in piano music. First and second endings are the bracketed bars marked 1. and 2. Play the first ending, take the repeat, then skip it…
Readers Also Look For
Natural Sign: Natural Sign in piano music. A natural (♮) cancels a sharp or a flat, returning the note to its unaltered pitch for the rest of the measure.
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Sharp: Sharp in piano music. A sharp (♯) raises a note by one semitone, the very next key to the right, black or white.
Sixteenth Note: Sixteenth Note in piano music. 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-no…
