Musical symbols are marks and symbols in musical notation that indicate various aspects of how a piece of music is to be performed. There are symbols to communicate information about many musical elements, including pitch, duration, dynamics, or articulation of musical notes; tempo, metre, form (e.g., whether sections are repeated), and details about specific playing techniques (e.g., which fingers, keys, or pedals are to be used, whether a string instrument should be bowed or plucked, or whether the bow of a string instrument should move up or down).
Lines Staff/staveThe five-line staff (often "stave" in British usage) is used to indicate pitch. Each line or space indicates the pitch belonging to a note with a letter name: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Moving vertically upwards, the letter names proceed alphabetically with the alternating lines and spaces, and represent ascending pitches. The A-G pattern repeats continually—the note above "G" is always another "A". A clef is almost always added, which assigns one specific pitch to one specific line; the other lines and spaces are determined alphabetically as described.Ledger or leger linesThese additional lines (and the spaces they form) indicate pitches above or below the staff. The diagram shows one ledger line above the staff and one below, but multiple ledger lines can be used.Bar line (or barline)Bar lines separate measures ("bars") of music according to the indicated time signature. They sometimes extend through multiple staves to group them together when a grand staff is used or when indicating groups of similar instruments in a conductor's score.Double bar lineThese indicate some change in the music, such as a new musical section, or a new key/time signature.Bold double bar lineThese indicate the conclusion of a movement or composition.Dotted bar lineThese can be used to subdivide measures of complex meter into shorter segments for ease of reading. BraceA brace is used to connect two or more lines of music that are played simultaneously, usually by a single player, generally when using a grand staff. The grand staff is used for piano, harp, organ, and some pitched percussion instruments."Music Notation and Engraving – Braces and Bracket, Colorado College Music Department The brace is occasionally called an accolade in some old texts and can vary in design and style.BracketA bracket is used to connect two or more lines of music that sound simultaneously. In contemporary usage it usually connects staves of individual instruments (e.g., flute and clarinet; two trumpets; etc.) or multiple vocal parts, whereas the brace connects multiple parts for a single instrument (e.g., the right-hand and left-hand staves of a piano or harp part).
Clefs
A clef assigns one particular pitch to one particular line of the staff on which it is placed. This effectively defines the pitch range or tessitura of the music on that staff. A clef is usually the leftmost symbol on a staff, although a different clef may appear elsewhere to indicate a change in register. Historically, clefs could be placed on any line on a staff (or even on a space), but modern notation almost exclusively uses treble, bass, alto, and tenor clef. G clef (Treble clef)The center of the spiral of a G clef shows where the G above middle C is located on the staff. A G clef with the spiral centered on the second line of the staff is called treble clef. The treble clef is the most commonly encountered clef in modern notation.Alto clefC clef (Alto and Tenor clefs)The center of a C clef points to the line representing middle C. The center of alto clef places middle C on the third line on the staff. It is mainly used for the viola but is sometimes used for other instruments. Tenor clef places middle C on the fourth line. It is used for bassoon, cello, trombone, and double bass when the notes get very high, avoiding the use of excessive ledger lines. Until the classical era, C clefs were frequently placed on other lines as well (it is sometimes called a "movable clef"), mostly in vocal music, but this has been supplanted by the universal use of the treble and bass clefs. Modern editions of music from such periods generally rewrite the original C-clef parts to either treble (female voices), octave treble (tenors), or bass clef (tenors and basses). The C clef was sometimes placed on the third space of the staff (equivalent to an octave treble clef) but this usage is unusual since all other modern clefs are placed on lines.Tenor clef F clef (Bass clef)An F clef places the F below middle C on the line between the dots. When placing the F below middle C on the fourth line, as shown here, it is called bass clef, which is by far its most common usage. Bass clef appears nearly as often as treble clef in modern music notation. In older notation, particularly for vocal music, F clefs were sometimes centered on the third line (baritone clef) but this usage is obsolete. Octave clefTreble and bass clefs can be modified by octave numbers. An "8" below the clef (as in the third diagram) indicates that pitches will sound an octave lower than they would with the unmodified clef. A "15" below indicates a two-octave shift. These numbers may also be used above the clef to indicate pitches one or two octaves higher. A treble clef with an eight below is the most common version, typically used in music for guitar or tenor voice. Sometimes a shift of one octave down is indicated by drawing two clefs instead of one. On a 5-line staffNeutral clefUsed for pitchless instruments, such as percussion instruments. It is not a true clef—the lines and spaces do not indicate pitches—but it occupies the position of a clef. In this case, the lines and spaces indicate specific instruments, such as the different individual instruments in a drum set. It may also be drawn on a single-line staff for single percussion instruments.On a single-line staff TablatureUsed in place of ordinary staff notation for some string instruments, such as the guitar. It is not a clef, as the lines and spaces do not represent pitches. The lines represent the strings of an instrument (for standard 6-string guitars, six lines would be used). Numbers on the lines show which fret to use. Because the lines represent strings, the spaces between the lines are not used.
Rhythmic values of notes and rests
In American usage, musical note and rest values have names that indicate their length relative to a whole note. A half note is half the length of a whole note, a quarter note is one quarter the length, etc. Note British name / American nameRest Large (Latin: Maxima) / Octuple whole note Longa / Quadruple whole note Breve / Double whole note Semibreve / Whole note Minim / Half note Crotchet / Quarter noteExamples of the older rest symbol are found in the work of English music publishers up to the 20th century, e.g., W. A. Mozart Requiem Mass, vocal score ed. W. T. Best, pub. London: Novello & Co. Ltd. 1879.Rudiments and Theory of Music Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music, London 1958. I,33 and III,25. The former shows both rest forms without distinction, the latter the "old" form only. The book was the standard theory manual in the UK up until at least 1975. The "old" form was taught as a manuscript variant of the printed form. Quaver / Eighth noteFor notes of this length and shorter, the notehas the same number of flags (or hooks) as the rest has branches. Semiquaver / Sixteenth note Demisemiquaver / Thirty-second note Hemidemisemiquaver / Sixty-fourth note Semihemidemisemiquaver / Quasihemidemisemiquaver / Hundred twenty-eighth note(p. 112) Demisemihemidemisemiquaver / Two hundred fifty-sixth note Beamed notesEighth notes (quavers) and shorter notes have flags to indicate their duration, but can also be grouped together with beams. The number of beams is equivalent to the number of flags on the note value—eighth notes are beamed together with a single beam, sixteenth notes with two, and so on. This is usually done to indicate a rhythmic grouping but can also be used to connect notes in ametrical passages. In older printings of vocal music, the use of beams is sometimes reserved for notes that are sung on one syllable of text (melisma). Modern notation of vocal music encourages the use of beaming, consistent with instrumental engraving, however. In non-traditional meters, beaming is at the discretion of composers and arrangers and can be used to emphasize a rhythmic pattern. Dotted notePlacing a dot to the right of a notehead lengthens the note's duration by one-half. A second dot increases the duration by an additional , making the note times as long as the unmodified note. Additional dots would continue this system, each increasing the duration by of the previous dot's value, but use of more than two dots is rare. Rests can be dotted in the same manner as notes. Ghost noteA ghost note has a rhythmic value but no discernible pitch. It is represented by a (saltire) cross (similar to the letter x) notehead instead of an oval. It is primarily used to represent percussive pitches or spoken words. Multi-measure restThe multi-measure rest is a compact way to indicate multiple measures of rest. It is also called gathered rest or multi-bar rest.
Breaks Breath markThis symbol tells the performer to take a breath (for singers and aerophones), to lift the bow and start the next note with a new bowing (for bowed instruments), or to leave a slight space (for other instruments). This marking does not affect the tempo. CaesuraA caesura indicates a pause during which time is not counted.
Accidentals and key signatures
Common accidentals Accidentals modify the pitch of the notes that follow them on the same staff position within a measure, unless cancelled by an additional accidental. FlatThe flat symbol lowers the pitch of a note by one semitone. SharpThe sharp symbol raises the pitch of a note by one semitone. NaturalA natural cancels a sharp or flat. This sharp or flat may have been indicated as an accidental or defined by the key signature. Double flatA double flat lowers the pitch of a note by two semitones. Double sharpA double sharp raises the pitch of a note by two semitones.
Key signatures Key signatures indicate which notes are to be played as sharps or flats in the music that follows, showing up to seven sharps or flats. Notes that are shown as sharp or flat in a key signature will be played that way in every octave—e.g., a key signature with a B indicates that every B is played as a B. A key signature indicates the prevailing key of the music and eliminates the need to use accidentals for the notes that are always flat or sharp in that key. A key signature with no flats or sharps generally indicates the key of C major or A minor, but can also indicate that pitches will be notated with accidentals as required. The key signature examples shown here are as they would appear in treble clef.
Flat key signatures
Sharp key signatures
Microtones There is no universally accepted notation for microtonal music, with varying systems being used depending on the situation. A common notation for quarter tones involves writing the fraction next to an arrow pointing up or down. Below are other forms of notation: