Music Theory: Repeat Signs

So, I kinda mentioned this in the post on musical structure (i.e. the layout of a piece of music). What is it?

Repeat signs and directions.

This is actually something I see done wrong- or at least underused- in many online tabs (not that it makes a difference to the accuracy of the tab…). I mean, why write 10 pages of music when you can use repeats and squeeze it into only three?!

So here they are, in no particular order:

Repeat Barlines

These are basically a set of barlines that tell you to repeat a section. One will be placed at the beginning of the section, and the other will be at the end.

For example, these four bars should be played twice:

Both are double barlines that are thicker than normal. Notice that the first repeat bar faces to the right, and the second faces to the left? This is to show that it’s the part in between them that is repeated.

Repeat Endings

Sometimes you might see “x3″ or “x4″ over the second repeat bar, which means that you play the section “3 times” or “4 times” in total.

IMPORTANT: it’s “4 times in total” and not “4 repeats” because “4 repeats” would actually be five times including the first time you play it (once through and then 4 repeats).

…but what if something has to be played twice (or more) with a slightly different ending each time?

Then we use repeat endings:

In the above example, you would play the music from the first through to the second repeat barline (the first time). Then you would go back to the first repeat barline, play the first two bars but this time play the part under the “2″ (the second time) instead of the part under the “1″.

Basically you’re playing the first two bars for every repeat, but playing “ending 1″ (notated by the “1″ and bracket) the first time, and “ending 2″ (notated by the “2″ and bracket) the second time.

You can do this with as many different endings as you want.

Repeat Bar

Alternatively, you can use a repeat bar.

Which means “for this bar, just repeat the previous bar”.

A variation on this is the double repeat bar, which is basically the same but with two lines. It says “for these two bars, play the what you just played for the last two bars”.

Kinda saves you writing out the same thing twice.

Da Capo

This is one of those musical Italian terms…translated into English it means “from the start”. When you see it in a song, you should play up to that point and then go back to the beginning and play from there.

Sometimes it’s also shortened to “D.C.”.

Dal Segno

This one is a bit more complicated. Often shortened to “D.S.”, it basically means “from the sign”. So, you play up to that bit, then go back to where it has this sign:

Sometimes you’ll need to use more than one sign (for different parts of a song) for that we use “Dal Segno Segno” or “D.S.S.” (which is just two of the signs put together…).

Stay tuned for next week’s post where I’ll explain even more repeat signs and directions!
Rob.

July 15, 2011 at 8:00 am | Music Theory | 2 comments

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