Dal segno

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In music notation, dal segno (UK: , US: , Italian: [dal ˈseɲɲo]), abbreviated D.S., is a direction to the musician to repeat some of the piece. It means "from the sign" in Italian, the sign being a symbol printed on the sheet music. The abbreviation D.S. appears on the music sheet at the point where the musician must repeat a passage. At another point on the music sheet, the sign (shown at right) indicates the passage to repeat. The sign is called the segno in English. When music is being read and there is a segno at the top of a measure, the musician continues playing without acting upon it except to remember where it is. It alerts the musician to expect a D.S. later in the piece. Likewise, if there is a fine or coda symbol printed at the top of a measure, it is ignored until a subsequent D.S. al fine or D.S. al coda instructs the musician to use those notations.

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