Arpeggio
Five cases to listen to: the same chord once struck together, once broken. The same notes, a different entry.
A chord is printed as a column: all the heads above one another, all the notes at once. The wavy line to its left says they should not come at once but quickly one after another, from the bottom up. The word comes from the Italian arpa, the harp — an instrument that cannot take a chord any other way.
On this page every case stands twice side by side: without the sign on the left, with it on the right. Listen to both and you hear the same notes and a different beginning. That is what sets this sign apart from most of the others on these pages: here the sound really changes, not just the picture. Both are measured — the entry times from the sound, the wavy line and the positions of the heads from the engraved image.
The chord does not get longer for it. The notes enter one after another and stop together; the same sound stands at the end, it just arrived differently.
The chord without a sign
Four heads above one another, one entry: that is what a chord looks like when nothing else is printed. All the notes begin together and stop together. This picture is the point of comparison for everything that follows — the same thing stands again to the right of it, and there it is exactly this single entry that changes.
From the bottom up
The same four notes, now with the wavy line. In the sound they enter one after another, from the bottom up, and the gap is small enough that it still sounds like a chord and not like a scale. The arrowhead is not needed when the chord is broken upwards anyway; some editions print it regardless, to leave no doubt.
From the top down
The same chord, with the arrow pointing down. Now the highest note comes first and the lowest last. This is a good deal rarer and usually appears where a bass should ring on, or where the hand comes from above. Listen to the two pictures one after the other and the difference is immediate — the same notes, but the movement runs backwards.
The widely spread chord
Here the notes are spread across two octaves, in the bass clef. One hand cannot take that at once, and that is precisely what the sign is for: the wave turns an unplayable grip into a playable one. In piano writing it therefore appears particularly often, and there usually without an arrow.
The sign covers one chord
Two chords one after the other, and only the first has a wave in front of it. The second stays a column. This answers a common question: the sign covers the chord it stands in front of, not the bar and not the passage. Anyone who wants the next one broken as well writes a second wave.
How fast, and which way round
How fast to break the chord is written nowhere. It depends on the tempo, on the instrument and on the character of the passage: at a quiet ending the wave may take its time, in the middle of a fast run it is almost a single stroke. There is one rule all the same — the top note should land on the beat when the melody is up there, and the bottom one when the bass is what counts. Neither is printed in a good edition; it is the player's business.
The direction, on the other hand, is printed. Without an arrow the chord is broken upwards, which is the normal case. An arrow pointing down at the end of the wave reverses it: then the highest note comes first. Both cases can be heard on this page, and in the sound the pitches really do run in the opposite order.
What stands next to it
Which notes a chord is made of and which chords there are: Articulation. Other signs that prescribe how a note is played rather than which: Ornaments.
Music symbols · Articulation · Ornaments · Music notation glossary
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See AnotonaEvery note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.