Repeat signs and navigation markings

Each bar holds the number of beats the time signature sets. A bar line also ends the life of accidentals: a sharp written in one bar does not carry into the next — except on a note tied across the bar line, which keeps its accidental until the tie ends.

American English calls a bar a measure. A bar line is never played; it is purely a reading aid.

It does not stop the music; it marks a seam. Look at what changes just after it — a new key signature, time signature or tempo, or a new section of the form.

A thin line followed by a thick one is a different sign: the final bar line.

When a D.C. or D.S. sends you back, the final bar line may not be where the performance stops: Fine or a coda can take its place.

With two dots in front of it, it stops being an ending and becomes a repeat sign.

An end-repeat sign (dots on its left) sends you back to the matching start-repeat sign (dots on its right). If there is no start-repeat sign, go back to the beginning of the piece. Play the section a second time, then carry on.

With first and second endings, the second time through skips the first ending.

First time through, play the bars under bracket 1, which end with a repeat sign. Go back and play the section again; when you reach bracket 1, jump straight to bracket 2.

A bracket can cover more than one pass — '1., 2.' — with a third ending after it. The brackets are also called volta brackets, from the Italian for 'time', as in 'first time'.

It usually comes with a place to stop. D.C. al Fine: return to the beginning and play until the word Fine, 'end'. D.C. al Coda: return to the beginning, play until To Coda (or the coda sign), then jump to the coda.

Whether to take repeats again on the way back is a matter of convention. Traditionally they are skipped after a D.C., but editions and teachers differ, and some scores say so outright. When it matters, follow the edition or the director.

It works like D.C., except that the return point is the 𝄋 sign. D.S. al Fine: go back to the sign and play until Fine. D.S. al Coda: go back to the sign, play until To Coda, then jump to the coda.

So a D.S. al Coda is three markers followed in order: the segno where you restart, To Coda where you leave, and the coda sign where you land.

Segno is Italian for 'sign'. On its own it does nothing; it only marks where to restart when you later reach a D.S..

Coda is Italian for 'tail'. After a D.C. al Coda or D.S. al Coda, when you reach To Coda (often with the sign) you leave the music there and jump to the matching sign at the start of the coda.

On the first time through, To Coda is ignored.