Barlines

Barlines are vertical lines that cross staves in order to show how music is divided into bars, according to the time signature.

There are a number of different types of barlines that are used in different contexts:

Normal (Single)

A standard single barline that spans the entire height of the staff. For single-line staves, the barline extends one space above and below the staff line by default.

Double

A double barline consists of two lines, both the width of a single barline, positioned half a space apart by default. It is often used to denote significant changes in the music, or to mark the placement of rehearsal marks, key signature changes, and tempo changes.

Final

A final barline consists of two lines: one of normal width, the other thick. It marks where the music ends.

Start repeat

A start repeat line consists of a thick barline, followed by a normal barline, followed by one of the following arrangements of dots:

• Two dots, one each in the middle two spaces of a five-line staff

• Four dots, one each in all four spaces of a five-line staff

It shows the start of a repeated section. It is used alongside end repeat lines, which show the end of a repeated section.

End repeat

An end repeat line is the mirror of a start repeat line, so it consists of either two or four dots, followed by a normal barline, followed by a thick barline. It shows the end of a repeated section. It is used alongside start repeat lines, which show the start of a repeated section.

End/Start repeat

This line combines the start repeat and end repeat barlines, with either two single barlines with a single shared thick barline in the middle, or two thick barlines and no single barlines. On either side, there are either two or four repeat dots. It is used when a repeated section is immediately followed by another, separate repeated section.