A vertical line across the staff, dividing the music into bars.
Also known as: Barline, Measure line, Vertical line music
A vertical line across the staff divides the music into bars. It carries no sound of its own, and it is the mark that makes a time signature mean anything.
Divides the staff into bars, each holding the number of beats the time signature states.
Contexts: Music
Cancels any accidental written earlier in the bar, so a sharp does not carry across it.
Contexts: Music
Is doubled to mark a section end, and made thick-and-thin to mark the end of the piece — a small vocabulary of line weights carrying structural meaning.
Contexts: Music
A single straight vertical line drawn from the top line of the staff to the bottom line, and no further.
The time signature says how much goes in a bar; the bar line says where the bar ends.