Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Adult Beginners Forum I need help with these music sheet symbols

So I'm playing this song, and I've run into this, not sure how to proceed:

http://i.imgur.com/tEEAe7R.jpg

As you can see, it's a squiggly line thingy and there is a treble next to it, which is odd, since I can't play all those notes with my right hand. The squiggly line appears again here:

http://i.imgur.com/oyRz9D4.jpg

This time, the clef appears to the bottom left of the squiggly thing as if to signify the piece going back to normal. Then, in another line, the squiggly line appears again, but this time, no treble or clef next to it:

http://i.imgur.com/RvKdkpD.jpg

Any help is appreciated, I googled it but it's hard to find answers when all I got is "squiggly line" and no proper term

A quick google search revealed this:

It means "Arpeggiated", and the word used to describe it is "arpeggiato"!

You effectively play it broken instead of all at once. Not sure how that's done since none of the stuff I'm working on has that.

I searched for it this way "what is the squiggly line next to a chord called".

Imagine the sound of a guitar being strummed once. That's how you want to play the chord. This is also called a rolled chord. Some block chords can also be rolled if your hand-span isn't large enough.

Yes,
While arpeggiated is technically the correct term, that can be a bit misleading. Rolled is probably a better way to describe it. The notes are all played on the same beat, you can imagine just quickly rotating your wrist to roll your fingers over the notes and play them. hope that makes sense.

Ahhh that makes a lot of sense. Thanks noobpianist90.

I do have one piece that has a massive, you gotta have gigantor hands to reach chord. I'll have to look up some examples on YouTube later on at work to see how it's done.

The piece I'm learning now has a few of these, the opening chords should give you a good idea of how they'd sound played

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy1NcnD3fBk

Thanks everyone, although I still don't understand what the point of the treble is down in the clef? Is it just treble notes, so basically play the B below middle C and the G above middle C with my left hand and so on until the clef symbol reappears? Sorry for the confusion

Yes, the treble clef just tells you which notes the lines/space on the staff represent. If both hands are playing above middle C you'll often see each staff with a treble clef. If both hands are playing below middle C, you'll see both staves with a Bass clef

It's just an arpeggio..........play the note quickly apart from bottom to top......and hold every note

Good luck
Johan B

Hi Cristian,



Anytime you see a clef symbol in the middle of the staff, it means that staff is switching to that clef. After the treble clef symbol, read the notes as if they are in treble clef. When the bass clef reappears then switch back to bass clef.

It's just coincidence that the clef changes and rolled chords (squiggly lines) appear at the same time.