There And Back Again
How to use DC, DS, and Coda symbols
In this tip we'll look at some of the "navigation" markings you'll find in many pieces of music. These markings are similar to repeat markings, but a bit more complicated, and the general point of these markings is to allow sections of a piece of music to be repeated, but with different endings.
D.C.
D.C. simply means "go back to the beginning". The letters stand for "da capo", which is Italian for "from the head". So if you see D.C. at the end of a piece, go back to the beginning again. At some point in the piece there will be a marking Fine or To Coda - see below...
D.S.
D.S. means "go back to the sign". The letters stand for "dal segno", which is Italian for "from the sign". The "sign" is a curly "S" shape (shown below), and will be located at some point in the music after the beginning. Sometimes you will see the "S" in "D.S." replaced by a small version of the Segno.
Fine
You'll find the term Fine at some point in the middle of a piece, often with a double bar or pause marking. It is pronounced "finny", not "fine", and it's the Italian for "The End". Therefore, this is where you stop playing after having returned to play from the beginning (D.C.) or the sign (D.S.).
Coda
Instead of finishing at the Fine, you might instead see a Coda sign, or the marking to coda. In this case, when you reach this marking, you immediately jump to the separate section that you'll find at the end of the music, which will be marked Coda. The ending of the piece will be the end of the Coda section. "Coda" is Italian for "tail" - i.e., the ending.
Symbols
We use the following symbols when referring to the "sign" and the "coda":
| Name | Symbol |
|---|---|
| The Segno |  |
| The Coda sign |  |
In combination
You will usually find these terms in combination, for example:
- D.C. al Coda — go from the beginning and take the Coda
- D.S. al Fine — go from the segno/sign and end at the Fine
A trap!
There is one trap to watch out for: in a piece with repeats (i.e., standard repeat markings), you never play the repeats after taking a D.S. or D.C. — you just play those sections once, and always take the 2nd (or last) time bar, if present.
However ... this is the standard practice, but occasionally (perhaps to make a piece last longer, or to balance out certain sections), the conductor might ask you to play the repeats on the D.C. or D.S.
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