the road map: repeat signs

Look at the image of the music staff sheet below.  There are 5 staffs, or staves, and each staff is made up of 5 horizontal bar lines.

On the 1st staff, at the left end, I've circled one repeat sign, made up of 2 vertical lines and a pair of dots on the right side.  On the 3rd staff, at the right end, I've circled a 2nd repeat sign, where the dots are on the left side of the 2 vertical lines.  When you encounter the first repeat sign, that becomes your signal to keep in mind that, sometime up ahead, you are going to get to another one, this time with the dots on the left.  When you get to that second one, you immediately go back to the first sign and carry on from there.

In the above situation, the repeat signs indicate that the passage is sung 3 times.  The 1st time, just before you get to the 2nd repeat sign, you encounter FA LA LA where there is a notation of "1,2" above the bar lines, which indicates that the 1st and 2nd time you get to this spot you sing FA LA LA.  After you sing the FA LA LA for a 2nd time, you go back to the 1st repeat sign once more.  Since this will now be the 3rd time you've sung the part, when you reach the part just before FA LA LA, you jump to the part where there's a "3" above the bar lines and sing DUM DEE DUM.

Note that repeat signs can and do happen anywhere within a piece of music.

I hope this is all completely clear.  I suggest that now would be a good time to entertain any questions you may have. 

the gist

It's remarkable how many choir members do not know how to read music.  How much of a hindrance it is for the singer is debatable, but I can tell you this much - if you can read music, you'll definitely have a tool to help you learn music you want to sing.

I go through a fairly set routine when I get a new piece of music in front of me, which I'll refer to as music score, all that stuff with lines and round things with stems and quavers on them.  The routine requires an understanding of rudimentary music theory, which granted is a language unto itself, but which lucky enough is arguably one of the easiest languages there is.

There are a couple concepts that I will teach you first, before we get to actually reading notes.  The first thing to learn is what I call the roadmap.  Unfortunately, some composers write out music score that doesn't read like a book - it doesn't simply go from the start to the end, but contains repeat symbols throughout that guide you back and forth from one section of a song to another.  It's not necessarily a bad thing.  It certainly can cut down on the number of pages.  Although it sure can be confusing, fear not, for it is very teachable.

The next subject will be rhythm.  While many folk look at a music score, and see notes up and down the staff, and only sort of understand that it means to sing higher or lower, it's the rhythm notation that messes people up the most.  I think it's akin to our abilities with arithmetic.  Lets face it, when we were in grade school, some of us got fractions, and some of us just plain didn't.  The truth be known, rhythm notation in music score is all about fractions, which more or less explains why rhythm is kind of tough.  Not to worry though.  We will get through it.