Music symbols

Signs that get mistaken for each other

These are the pairs that actually cost people time. In most of them the difference is a single stroke, or nothing at all in the sign itself — only where it is placed.

• Accent vs Marcato (roof accent)

  Both are wedges above the note. The accent opens sideways and asks for a sharper attack at the same length; the marcato points upwards and asks for weight, usually with a shortening of the note.

• Staccato dot vs Tenuto line

  A dot shortens the note and separates it; a line holds it to its full value. They are opposites written with almost the same amount of ink.

• Staccato dot vs Staccatissimo

  A round dot is short; a wedge is shorter and sharper. Editors and composers disagree about how much shorter, which is why both signs survive.

• Mordent (upper mordent / short trill) vs Trill (tr)

  A mordent is a single quick turn to the neighbour note and back; a trill keeps alternating for the length of the note. The signs differ only by a vertical stroke and the letters tr.

• Mordent (upper mordent / short trill) vs Lower mordent (struck through)

  The struck-through sign goes to the note below, the plain one to the note above. Which is which has flipped between national traditions, so the sign alone does not settle it.

• Turn (gruppetto) vs Inverted turn

  The same S on its side, mirrored. One starts from above the written note, the other from below.

• Fermata (pause / bird's eye) vs Breath mark (comma)

  A fermata stretches the note; a breath mark takes time out of it. One adds, the other subtracts.

• Tremolo, three strokes vs Sixteenth note (semiquaver)

  Three strokes through a stem mean a tremolo; three flags on a stem mean a thirty-second note. The strokes cross the stem, the flags hang off its end.

• Repeat previous bar vs Tremolo, two strokes

  Both are slashes with dots. The bar repeat sits centred in an otherwise empty bar; the tremolo sits on a stem.

• Harmonic (small circle) vs Open (small circle)

  The same small circle. Above a string part it means a harmonic; above a brass or horn part it means open, the opposite of the plus sign.

• Left-hand pizzicato (+) vs Closed / stopped (+)

  The same plus sign. On strings it means pluck with the left hand; on brass and horn it means stopped or muted.

• Crescendo hairpin (opening wedge) vs Diminuendo hairpin (closing wedge)

  The wedge opens towards the loud end. Which end that is decides the whole phrase, and the two are easy to mistake at a glance in a dense score.

• Double barline vs Final barline (end of piece)

  Two thin lines mark a section change and the music continues; a thin line followed by a thick one means the piece or movement is over.

• Segno vs Coda

  The segno is the place you jump back to; the coda is the place you jump forward to. Both are ornate signs that appear above the staff.

• Acciaccatura (crushed grace note) vs Appoggiatura (grace note)

  A slash through the stem makes it an acciaccatura, crushed in before the beat; without the slash it is an appoggiatura and takes real time from the main note.

• Whole rest (semibreve rest) vs Half rest (minim rest)

  The same small black rectangle. The whole rest hangs under the fourth line, the half rest sits on top of the third. Nothing about the shape tells you which — only where it is placed on the staff.

• Diamond notehead (harmonic) vs X notehead (unpitched / spoken)

  A diamond asks for a harmonic or an unfingered touch; an X marks an unpitched sound — a spoken note, a rim, a scrape.