24 symbols on the staff
Dynamics from pp to ff, crescendo and decrescendo, staccato, legato, accents, fermata, ties, ritardando, sharps and flats, repeat signs and D.C. al Fine, each in a real example.
Music Symbols and Their Meanings
Tap any music symbol to see it on the staff and hear how it changes the same melody.
How to use the music symbols chart
No signup and nothing to install. It runs on a laptop, a tablet, a phone or the classroom projector.
- 01
Pick a symbol
Choose from dynamics, articulation, tempo, accidentals and repeats. The symbol appears in a short melody on the treble staff with its name and meaning.
- 02
Hear the difference
Play the example, then play the same melody without the symbol. Staccato against normal notes, piano against mezzo forte: the change is easy to hear.
- 03
Test yourself
Switch to the quiz, name the symbol from four answers and hear it after every answer. Limit the quiz to one group, such as dynamics, to practise it first.
Music symbols you can hear, not just read
Made for music lessons, for beginners reading their first scores and for anyone who has wondered what a sign means.
With and without the symbol
Every example plays twice if you like: once as written and once ignoring the symbol. The sounding note lights up on the staff, so you can follow along.
Quiz for the whole class
Name the symbol, get the answer with its meaning and sound, and keep score. Choose all symbols or just one group to match what your class is learning.
Clear on any screen
Large symbols, a full screen projector mode and controls that work with a mouse, a finger or the keyboard. The sound plays even offline with a built in piano tone.
Music symbols chart with meanings
Written music carries much more than the pitch and length of each note. The music symbols around the notes tell you how loud to play, how to start and end each note, where to slow down and which part to play again. Most of them come from Italian, because Italian composers and printers set the conventions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and musicians all over the world still read the same signs today.
The table lists every symbol in the tool with how it looks in print and what it means. The rows follow the groups in the tool: dynamics, articulation, tempo and length, accidentals and repeats.
| Symbol | How it looks | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Pianissimo | pp | pp: play very soft. |
| Piano | p | p: play soft. |
| Mezzo piano | mp | mp: play moderately soft. |
| Mezzo forte | mf | mf: play moderately loud. |
| Forte | f | f: play loud. |
| Fortissimo | ff | ff: play very loud. |
| Crescendo | Opening hairpin < or cresc. | Get gradually louder. |
| Decrescendo | Closing hairpin > or decresc., dim. | Get gradually softer. |
| Sforzando | sfz or sf | sfz: a sudden strong accent on one note. |
| Staccato | Dot at the note head | A dot: play the note short and detached. |
| Legato | Curved line over different notes | A slur: play the notes smoothly connected. |
| Tenuto | Short line at the note head | A line: hold the note for its full value. |
| Accent | Wedge > | A wedge (>): play the note stronger. |
| Marcato | Roof ^ | A roof (^): play the note strong and short. |
| Fermata | Arc with a dot | Hold the note longer than its value. |
| Tie | Curve between two equal notes | A curve between two equal notes: add them together. |
| Ritardando | rit. or rall. | rit.: slow down gradually. |
| Accelerando | accel. | accel.: speed up gradually. |
| Sharp | ♯ | ♯: raise the note by a half step. |
| Flat | ♭ | ♭: lower the note by a half step. |
| Natural | ♮ | ♮: cancel a sharp or flat. |
| Repeat sign | Double bar line with two dots | Play the passage between the signs twice. |
| First and second ending | Brackets 1. and 2. | Play ending 1 the first time, ending 2 the second time. |
| Da capo al Fine | D.C. al Fine | D.C. al Fine: go back to the start and stop at Fine. |
Dynamics in music: from pianissimo to fortissimo
Dynamics describe volume. The two basic words are piano, soft, and forte, loud. Add mezzo, moderately, and you get mezzo piano and mezzo forte in the middle; double the letter and you get pianissimo and fortissimo at the ends. A piece without any marking is usually played around mezzo forte. Some composers write ppp or fff for extremes, but six levels cover almost every school piece.
Changes in volume have their own signs. A crescendo, written as an opening hairpin or cresc., grows louder over several notes; a decrescendo or diminuendo, a closing hairpin or dim., grows softer. A sforzando, sfz, is different: it is a sudden push on one single note. Listen to all three in the tool, because the difference between a gradual change and a sudden one is much easier to hear than to describe.
Articulation: staccato, legato, tenuto and accents
Articulation is how each note begins and ends. Staccato, a dot at the note head, makes the note short and detached. Legato, a slur over a group of notes, connects them without any gap, as a singer would in one breath. Tenuto, a short line, holds the note for its full value, often with a little weight. These three are the answer to most questions about how a melody should sound when the notes alone look identical.
Accents make single notes stronger. The wedge accent > lifts a note above its neighbours; the marcato ^ is stronger still and usually shorter. Do not confuse a slur with a tie: a slur joins different notes, while a tie joins two notes of the same pitch into one longer note that is played only once.
Tempo signs, accidentals and repeats
Some symbols change time. A fermata, the arc with a dot, holds a note longer than written, and the music waits until the player or conductor moves on. Ritardando, rit., gradually slows down; accelerando, accel., gradually speeds up. Ties also belong here, because they make a note last across the bar line.
Accidentals change pitch. A sharp ♯ raises a note by a half step, a flat ♭ lowers it, and a natural ♮ cancels either one. An accidental is valid until the end of its bar. Repeat signs, finally, change the order of the music: the double bar with two dots means play again, first and second endings give the repeat a different ending, and D.C. al Fine sends you back to the beginning until the word Fine.
For music teachers
Teach music symbols on the classroom screen
Put the chart on the projector in full screen, play a symbol with and without its effect and let the class describe the difference, then run the quiz together, with no login for you or your pupils. When your students are ready to make their own music, Make a Beat gives you a whole classroom: students join with a code and their name, no email addresses, and you set assignments, listen to what they hand in and grade it. GDPR, FERPA and COPPA ready, servers in Germany, and every school licence starts with a free trial.
Questions about music symbols
What are music symbols?
Music symbols are the signs in written music that tell you how to play the notes. Dynamics such as p and f set the volume, articulations such as staccato and accents shape each note, and signs such as fermatas, sharps and repeat signs change length, pitch and the order of the music.
What does staccato mean in music?
Staccato means short and detached: a dot above or below the note tells you to release it early, so a small silence follows before the next note. The beat does not change, only the sound gets shorter. Tap Staccato in the tool and compare it with the same phrase played normally.
What does crescendo mean?
Crescendo means getting gradually louder. It is written as an opening hairpin under the staff or as the word cresc. The opposite is decrescendo or diminuendo, written as a closing hairpin or dim., which means getting gradually softer. Both describe a smooth change, not a sudden jump.
What are dynamics in music?
Dynamics are the markings for how loud or soft to play. From soft to loud the common levels are pianissimo (pp), piano (p), mezzo piano (mp), mezzo forte (mf), forte (f) and fortissimo (ff). They come from Italian, where piano means soft and forte means strong.
What is the difference between legato and staccato?
Legato and staccato are opposites. Legato, shown with a slur, connects the notes smoothly with no gap between them. Staccato, shown with dots, makes every note short with a small silence after it. Play both examples in the tool to hear the same melody sung and then bounced.
What is the difference between a tie and a slur?
A tie connects two notes of the same pitch and turns them into one longer note, so the second one is not played again. A slur looks similar but joins different notes and means play them legato. If the curve links two identical notes, it is a tie.
What does a fermata mean?
A fermata means hold the note or rest longer than its written value. It looks like an arc with a dot above the note. How long you hold it is up to the performer or the conductor, often about twice the normal length, before the music continues in tempo.
Is this music symbols tool free?
Yes. All 24 music symbols with their meanings, the sound examples with and without each symbol and the quiz are free, with no account and no download. The tool runs in any current browser on a laptop, a tablet, a phone or the classroom projector.
From music symbols to your own beat
Open the beat maker with the example of your symbol on the piano, then add drums, bass and chords around it.