---
title: "Music Notation Symbols: What Each One Means · Piakno"
description: "Music notation uses a small set of symbols: a staff and clef that place the notes, notes and rests that time them, sharps and flats that alter them, and marks for loudness, touch and speed. This chart names each one."
url: "https://piakno.com/theory/music-symbols"
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---

# Music notation symbols

> Music notation uses a small set of symbols: a staff and clef that place the notes, notes and rests that time them, sharps and flats that alter them, and marks for loudness, touch and speed. This chart names each one.

Also called Music symbols or Sheet music symbols

Most of a page of piano music is notes. Around them sit a few dozen symbols, and a beginner meets the same twenty again and again. They are shown here in the order a score is read: what sets up the staff, what times the notes, and what says how to play them.

## The symbols at the start of a staff

*A treble clef, a key signature of one sharp, a 4/4 time signature, a barline between the measures, and a final barline.*

## Notes and rests

*Whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes, then a rest of each length.*

## Marks that say how to play

*A tempo word above; a slur, staccato dots, an accent and a fermata on the notes; p, a crescendo and f below.*

## Every symbol, and where it is explained

| Symbol | What it tells you | Explained in |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Treble clef (𝄞) | The second line is G above middle C | Treble and bass clef |
| Bass clef (𝄢) | The fourth line is F below middle C | Treble and bass clef |
| Ledger lines, 8va | A note above or below the staff; 8va over notes: an octave higher | Ledger lines and 8va |
| Key signature | The sharps or flats that hold for the whole piece | Key signature |
| Time signature, barlines | How many beats fill a measure, and where each measure ends | Time signature |
| Notes | How long a sound lasts | Note values |
| Rests | How long a silence lasts | Rests |
| A dot after a note | The note lasts half as long again | Dotted notes |
| Sharp ♯, flat ♭, natural ♮ | A half step up, a half step down, back to the plain note | Sharps, flats, and naturals |
| Repeat signs, 1st and 2nd endings | Play a passage again | Repeat signs |
| p, mf, f, crescendo | How loud | Dynamics |
| Staccato, accent, tenuto, slur | How each note is touched | Articulation |
| Allegro, ♩ = 120, rit., fermata | How fast, and where the music slows or holds | Tempo markings |
| Ped. | Press the sustain pedal | The sustain pedal |

> Every line of music begins with its clef and its key signature, in that order; the time signature comes after them on the first line only, and again only where it changes. So a sharp at the start of every line is the key, not a note.

## Common questions

### What do the symbols at the start of a staff mean?

Read them left to right: the clef says which note each line is, the key signature which notes are sharp or flat, and the time signature how the beats are counted. Everything after them is the music itself.

### What is the difference between a sharp and a flat?

A sharp raises a note by a half step, to the very next key on the right; a flat lowers it a half step, to the next key on the left. A natural sign cancels either one.

### What does a dot after a note mean?

It makes the note half as long again: a dotted half note lasts three beats instead of two, a dotted quarter one and a half. A dot above or below the note head is a different mark, staccato: play the note short.

## The course works through this in:

- [Lesson 9 · The furniture on the page: barlines, final barline, staves](https://piakno.com/course/piano-foundations/lesson/9)

## Related entries

- [Treble and bass clef](https://piakno.com/theory/treble-and-bass-clef)
- [Ledger lines and 8va](https://piakno.com/theory/ledger-lines-and-octave-signs)
- [Key signature](https://piakno.com/theory/key-signature)
- [Time signature](https://piakno.com/theory/time-signature)
- [Note values](https://piakno.com/theory/note-values)
- [Rests](https://piakno.com/theory/rests)
- [Dotted notes](https://piakno.com/theory/dotted-notes)
- [Sharps, flats, and naturals](https://piakno.com/theory/sharps-and-flats)
- [Repeat signs](https://piakno.com/theory/repeat-signs)
- [Dynamics](https://piakno.com/theory/dynamics)
- [Articulation](https://piakno.com/theory/articulation)
- [Tempo markings](https://piakno.com/theory/tempo-markings)
- [The sustain pedal](https://piakno.com/theory/sustain-pedal)

- [Music theory reference](https://piakno.com/theory)