PPP152: Repeat Signs Repeat Signs

22Jul 2019 by Shelly Davis

Repeat signs are common “road map” tools in music. Being able to repeat a section is much more user friendly than having pages and pages of music to read.

Today, we’re talking about three levels of repeat signs.

Listen to the full episode here

Basic Repeat Sign

The first repeat sign students tend to be taught is the repeat sign at the end of a piece. This indicates to play the entire piece again.
 
Sometimes there is a second repeat sign – a mirror image of the one at the end – that indicates to only go back to play that section again.

Multiple Endings

The next kind of repeat “road sign” is often called First and Second Ending. (Originally called prima volta and seconda volta. Volta is Italian for ‘time’.) Used for longer sections of music with different endings.

The first bracket indicates music to be played the first time through. There is a repeat sign at the end of the first bracket. When the musician gets to this section of the music the second time, they skip any music under the first bracket and go directly to the music in the second bracket. This type of repeat works well for songs with multiple verses.

Road Signs in Italian

A more advanced type of musical road sign that has a performer got back to play an earlier section of music are D. C. and D. S.
 
D. C. is the abbreviation for Da Capo (from the head) 1724 . D. C. means go back to the beginning, the top, the ‘head’ of the piece. 
 
D.S. is the abbreviation for Dal Segno (from the sign) 1854. With D. S., you don’t have to go all the way back to the beginning of the whole piece, just go back to the place you see the sign (It looks like an X with the forward slash being a straight line and the back slash a curvy S. There are also two dots on either side, making it look a bit like a vertical division sign.)
 
(That would be an interesting thing to research – the origin of Italian musical terms. Which composer was most likely creating in 1724 or 1854 in Italy who could have coined these phrases??)
 

Both D. C. and D. S. will likely be accompanied by more instructions. Either al fine or al coda. 

Al fine means to play to “the end”, which will also be marked in the music with the word ‘fine’. 

Al coda refers to a special section of music reserved for the very end of the piece. Coda is Italian meaning ‘tail’. It is derived from the Latin ‘cauda’ meaning appendage. 

If a coda is indicated the music will read “D. C. al Coda”. Your piano kid will go back to the beginning of the piece and play until the first Coda sign (looks like a circle with a plus sign over it or crosshairs for target practice) then go immediately to the other Coda sign. I tell my students it’s like a secret passage in Pacman or Clue where they get to jump from one measure to another, skipping over everything in-between.

Final Thoughts

Now you know more about all the different types of repeat signs your piano kid is likely to use in their music. There are a few more than these, especially for students who are also in band or orchestra, but we’ve covered the most common repeat signs piano kids use.

What other music symbols would like to hear about on the show? Let me know in the comments section below.

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