Reading Music · Chapter 12 of 12

Repeats and Endings

Music often plays a passage twice. Instead of printing it again, composers use a few road signs that send you back.

Reading a page of music is a bit like following directions on a road trip. Most of the time you just go forward, bar after bar. Now and then a sign says: go back and play that again.

Repeat signs

A repeat sign is a double bar line (a thin line and a thick one) with two dots on the side of the music to be repeated. When you reach an end repeat sign (dots on the left), go back to the matching start repeat sign (dots on the right) and play that part again. If there is no start sign, go back to the very beginning. The second time through, keep going past the repeat sign.

The start of Frère Jacques (a traditional round). Bars 3 and 4 sit between repeat signs, so you play bars 1 2 3 4 3 4. Press Hear it and watch the light jump back.

First and second endings

Often a repeated passage ends differently the second time. Brackets over the last bars, numbered 1. and 2., show the two endings. The first time, play the first ending and take the repeat. The second time, skip the first ending and play the second ending instead.

The theme of Ode to Joy written with endings. The order is 1 2 3 4 (first ending), then 1 2 3 5 (second ending). The first time the phrase ends up on D, as if asking a question; the second time it comes home to C.

Back to the beginning: D.C. and Fine

D.C. stands for da capo, Italian for “from the head”: go back to the very beginning. D.C. al Fine means go back to the beginning and play until you reach the word Fine (say “FEE-neh”), which means “the end.” The piece ends there, even though it isn’t the last bar on the page.

Play all four bars, then go back to the beginning (D.C.) and stop at Fine, the end of bar 2. Order: 1 2 3 4 1 2.

D.S. and the Coda

D.S. stands for dal segno, “from the sign.” Instead of the beginning, you go back to the sign (segno), which looks like a slanted S with a line through it and a dot on each side. D.S. al Fine means go back to the sign and play to Fine.

A coda (“tail”) is a separate ending section. Its sign looks like a circle with a cross through it. D.C. al Coda or D.S. al Coda means go back, play until you see the words To Coda (or the coda sign), then jump straight to the section marked Coda and play it to the end.

Before you play a new piece, follow its road signs with your finger from start to end. Find every repeat sign, ending bracket, D.C., D.S., Fine and Coda first, so they don’t surprise you halfway through.

Remember

End repeat sign: go back to the start repeat sign, or to the beginning if there isn’t one.
1st ending the first time; skip it and take the 2nd ending the second time.
D.C. = from the beginning. D.S. = from the sign. Fine = the end. Coda = the closing section.

You’ve finished Reading Music. Pick a song, turn on Letter names if you like, and try reading it as it plays. A little reading every day is how it becomes easy.

Songs that use this

You finished Reading Music. Now put it all together: pick a song, turn on letter names if you like, and play along. Go to the songs →