Music notation glossary · Further signs
Breath mark
breathe here
In the score
What it means
A comma above the staff. In wind and vocal parts it says where to breathe; in string parts the same sign marks a small break.
Fermata
A comma above the staff means: take a breath here. Wind players and singers need it, string players re-set the bow. The time for it is taken from the note before — the measure stays full, the note is simply released a little earlier. None of this appears in the sound.
Related pages
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Photograph a page of sheet music or play the melody — Anotona finds the key, engraves the notes and transposes them into any other. Free.
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.