A more advanced type of musical road sign that has a performer got back to play an earlier section of music are D. C. and D. S.
D.S. is the abbreviation for
Dal Segno (from the sign) 1854. With D. S., you don’t have to go all the way back to the beginning of the whole piece, just go back to the place you see the sign (It looks like an X with the forward slash being a straight line and the back slash a curvy S. There are also two dots on either side, making it look a bit like a vertical division sign.)
(That would be an interesting thing to research – the origin of Italian musical terms. Which composer was most likely creating in 1724 or 1854 in Italy who could have coined these phrases??)
Both D. C. and D. S. will likely be accompanied by more instructions. Either al fine or al coda.
Al fine means to play to “the end”, which will also be marked in the music with the word ‘fine’.
Al coda refers to a special section of music reserved for the very end of the piece. Coda is Italian meaning ‘tail’. It is derived from the Latin ‘cauda’ meaning appendage.
If a coda is indicated the music will read “D. C. al Coda”. Your piano kid will go back to the beginning of the piece and play until the first Coda sign (looks like a circle with a plus sign over it or crosshairs for target practice) then go immediately to the other Coda sign. I tell my students it’s like a secret passage in Pacman or Clue where they get to jump from one measure to another, skipping over everything in-between.