When we start playing music or listening to music, you often see and hear that there are accents on certain notes within the piece of music, which means that you have to play them louder, longer, short, sooner or later, and you also hear them louder, softer, earlier, later, longer or shorter. Think of classical music, for example. In sheet music, you can recognize an accent by the “greater than” sign, which can be above a note or group of notes. The “greater than” sign highlights the particular note or notes or part of the piece of music. For example, a note can sound dynamic, but also more intense, more sensitive. One thing is certain: you will recognize it immediately, because it is often noticeable when you listen to the piece of music. Surely you can recognize the dynamics and accents from classical works, such as Bizet, Vivaldi, Grieg, Dvorák. Below you can listen to some pieces where you can clearly hear the dynamics in singing and music.

Image of Ri Butov via Pixabay

Sometimes we also see a different sign in a piece of music, where there is an accent mark. Also known as the articulation sign. This is what we call the Marcato sign. This sign has one meaning and that is dynamism. The note or series of notes marked with a Marcato character must be played dynamically. They need to be turned on with emphasis and played more strongly. The Marcato sign looks like a roof and is placed above the note. Often, this sign is used in combination with the staccato sign, the dot. Sometimes with the non-legato sign. Non-legato is not tied play, but just a little longer than staccato and unbound play. You can recognize the non-legato sign by the horizontal line that is placed above or below the note. This is also known as the Tenuto sign.

But there are other characters that emphasize the note or notes in a piece of music. So we also know the fermata sign. It is indicated by a point and an arc above and is placed above or below the note. Fermata means waiting or stopping. How long you have to wait depends on what the conductor says when performing the song. Wait for the conductor's sign, where it is indicated when to continue playing. There is also an articulation sign that consists of letters. Sometimes you can see the letter Sfz under a note. These letters represent the word Sforzando. Sforzando means stronger, swell. You bring dynamics to the whole thing in the music at certain points in the piece of music.