Music is read from left to right, top to bottom, just like English. It is written on specially printed paper called manuscript paper. Each line of printed music is represented on a staff, which is a series of five parallel horizontal lines.
Each staff is read left to right, and then the music continues with the next line below. If two or more staves are connected at their left ends, however, they should be taken together. That is, music printed on the set of connected staves - called a system is meant to be played simultaneously. This is often done to represent each instrument in a printed score for an ensemble, or the left and right hands on the piano:
- Occasionally music for percussion is represented on staves of only three lines, or sometimes even one line:
- Repeat signs may be placed on a staff to indicate that a section of music is to be repeated:
- If the left edge of the section is not marked, then the section to be repeated starts at the beginning of the composition:
- A repeated section often differs between repetitions in its ending. This is marked as follows:
- The notation Da Capo, abbreviated D.C., indicates a return to the beginning of a composition:
- The notation Da Segno, abbreviated D.S., indicates a return to the segno, or sign:
- The coda marking indicates that the reader is to skip from one coda sign to another. Codas are observed only on a D.C. or D.S.
- When taking a D.C. or D.S., a composition ends where the word fine occurs:
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