Al segno
“To the sign” – repeat up to the segno sign.
What it means
Al segno, Italian for “to the sign,” is a performance direction stating that a repeat runs not to the end of the piece but only up to a marked point. That point is shown by the segno sign 𝄋, placed in the score at the target of the repeat.
Al segno usually appears together with da capo: the instruction “Da capo al segno” means to repeat from the beginning of the piece and to stop the repeat at the segno sign instead of continuing to the very end.
In the notation
The segno sign appears above or below the staff at the point where the repeat is meant to end. At the end of the written-out section, the direction “Da capo al segno” or “Dal segno al segno” appears, depending on whether the repeat starts from the beginning or from another marked point.
Musical use
Al segno lets a piece be notated compactly without writing out recurring sections. Instead of filling several pages with identical music, the notation refers back to a passage already played, saving space and page turns.
Related but distinct is the instruction dal segno, “from the sign”: it begins the repeat at the segno, while al segno marks where the repeat ends. Both directions are often combined with al fine or al coda to specify whether the piece closes at its normal ending or in a separately notated coda.
Performance practice
When sight-reading, scan the whole piece for repeat directions before you start playing, so that when you reach al segno you already know where to go next. If needed, mark the segno sign and its instruction in color so you can make the jump reliably in performance.