Segno
The segno, a slanted S crossed by a line with a dot either side, marks a place to return to. D.S., dal segno, “from the sign”, later in the music means go back to the segno and play on from there.
How to read it
Segno is Italian for sign. D.S. works like D.C. (da capo, “from the head”), which means repeat from the beginning, but it sends the player back to the sign instead. The repeat usually ends at the word Fine, “the end”. Al segno, “to the sign”, means repeat up to it.
Also searched as: dal segno.
Look-alikes
The Coda sign, a circle with a cross through it, is the other landmark in this kind of road map. The segno says where to go back to; the coda sign says where to jump from.
More music symbols
Sources
- Music Notation and Terminology, Karl W. Gehrkens, 1914, A. S. Barnes Company (Project Gutenberg), Chapter IV, §39
- Stainer and Barrett's Dictionary of Musical Terms, John Stainer and W. A. Barrett, new and revised edition, 1898, Novello (Internet Archive, Cornell University Library), Segno; Al segno
- Primer of Facts about Music, M. G. Evans, 1909, Theodore Presser Co. (Internet Archive, University of Toronto), §510–511, §518–520
- SMuFL: Repeats, Standard Music Font Layout, glyph table U+E040–U+E04F, W3C Music Notation Community Group, U+E047
Last reviewed September 26, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research