Following A Score With Peformance Marks

Maybe this will help.

There is a mistake in a picture. The third picture under D.C. al fine should not have a "fine" above the 4th measure. It should have a single barline there and an ending barline (like at the end of that measure) at the end of the piece. In this case (which is #4, D.C. al fine will play to the end of the song, skipping the first endings as indicated in that section.

One note not in this PDF, the "al fine" in the wrong picture is optional. Omitting the "al fine" in this case is more common. It is usually written DC, the song will start at the first beat then play, skipping first endings, to the end of the song.

Here is the order for what happens.

DC (Da Capo - to the beginning always tells the song to go to the beginning of the music.

DS (Sel Segno - to the sign) always tells the song to go back to the S with the slash and dots on it.

If there is nothing after DC or DS the song plays to the end.

If al fine is attached after it (such as DC al fine) the song will play to where "fine" is written above the staff.

If al coda follows it, then when the song reaches the circle with the plus in it (Coda) or the words to Coda (which is more common) it will jump to the coda section.

The coda section is written after the DC al Coda or DS al Coda and usually has a space or new line before it to make it easier to identify. This first measure of the Coda is always identified by the circle with the plus in it (Coda).

While playing the song after any DC or DS, the repeats are ignored and voltas before repeats are skipped. EXCEPTIONS - Repeat beat, repeat measure and Two-measure repeats are played if not under a volta that is being skipped.

I hope all of this helps.

@mike320, indeed, thank you very much! I've been looking for something to explain the various repeat symbols to potential Google Summer of Code students.

If anyone knows of any relatively simple scores on MuseScore.com that have these markings (repeats, codas, etc.) perhaps they could post links to them here? It would be good for students to be able to play the score and see the jump in playback at the mark.