Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for musicians, students, and enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Below you can find a part of RIOPY's "I Love You".
Could someone please explain to me, what does this X3 mean here and which part exactly should I repeat 3 times? And also, what does 1.2 mean?
My interpretation was that I should play the measure 14 to the end of 16 three times, but it's not right. It's not like in the track. It must be somehow connected to this 1.2.
And also, what does this 3. line mean in 17th?
The X3 means play 3 times, but it is misplaced. It should be at the beginning of the repeated section. The 1.2. means "play these bracketed measures the first two times", and the 3. means "play this bracketed section the third time."
To understand the marking, it must first be made clear to where the repeat sign at the end of m. 16 returns: either the beginning of the piece or to a matching repeat sign prior to m. 13. I'll refer to that point as A.
So you start playing at the beginning, and you reach m. 14. This being the first time through, you play the bracketed part marked 1. That bring you to m. 16 at which point you return to A.
Now this second time through, when you reach m. 14, you play the bracketed part marked 2. This again brings you to the m. 16 repeat and back to A.
The third time through, at m. 14 you skip the bracketed measures marked 1.2., and continue at the bracket marked 3 (i.e., m. 17).
This means that you should play that section three times total. There's presumably another repeat bar earlier in the piece; when you repeat this section, go back to that point and start playing again. (If there is no repeat bar earlier, then go back to the very beginning of the piece.)
The "1.2." notation means that, the first and second times you play through this section, you should proceed from the end of m. 13 directly to mm. 14–16.
On the third time through, however, you should finish m. 13 and jump directly to m. 17 (the "3." indicates "third time through").
This is volta. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repeat_sign
This means: Repeat section from 𝄆 (or from the beginning of the piece, if there was no 𝄆) until 𝄇 three times, first two times playing the ending marked as 1.2. (measures 14–16) and the third time ending marked as 3. (measure 17 and the following). The "X3" mark next to the repetition sign is redundant, and not used normally.
