left

clef A clef is usually the leftmost symbol on a staff, although a different clef may appear elsewhere to indicate a change in register. Historically, clefs could be placed on any line on a staff (or even on a space), but modern notation almost exclusively uses treble, bass, alto, and tenor clef.

Music symbols are the written language of sheet music - a collection of marks and instructions used to communicate how a piece of music should be played. These symbols represent different aspects of music, including pitch, rhythm, tempo, and dynamics, as well as articulation, phrasing, and more.

A dot added to a note increases the duration of that note by half. A second dot represents half the value of the first dot, or a quarter of the original duration.

lower in pitch In music, flat (Italian bemolle for "soft B") means "lower in pitch". Flat is the opposite of sharp, which is a raising of pitch. In musical notation, flat means "lower in pitch by one semitone (half step)", notated using the symbol ♭ which is derived from a stylised lowercase 'b'.

“We use the language center to appreciate music, which spans both sides of the brain, though language and words are interpreted in the left hemisphere while music and sounds are inerpreted in the right hemisphere,” Yonetani says.

Diminished chords almost always use a circle as their symbol: C°

And they help us quickly identify whether the music will sound high or low. This is a g clef or more commonly known as treble clef.

Lead Sheet Chord Symbols

A fermata (Italian: [ferˈmaːta]; "from fermare, to stay, or stop"; also known as a hold, pause, colloquially a birdseye or cyclops eye, or as a grand pause when placed on a note or a rest) is a symbol of musical notation indicating that the note should be prolonged beyond the normal duration its note value would ...

Octave lines indicate where notes are played higher/lower than they appear in the score or part. Octave lines are dashed or dotted horizontal lines with an italic numeral at the start. The numeral indicates the number of pitches by which the phrase is changed, such as 8 for one octave and 15 for two octaves.

Each key represents a semitone, with the lowest notes on the left of the piano and the highest on the right. So, when a note is sharpened, you move one key up to the right (black or white depending on which is closest) and when a note is flattened you move one key down to the left. Simple as that!

A flat is notated with the ♭ symbol, which is like a small 'b' – literally “soft B” in Italian, which a lot of classical music notation derives from – and means “lower in pitch”.