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Clefs, accidentals, rests, dynamics and expression marks.
Staff notation is a mature, internally consistent system where position on the stave carries as much information as the symbol itself. The distinction worth holding is between what the notation specifies exactly — pitch, duration — and what it leaves to the performer, which is most of the expression vocabulary.
These records say so themselves — the setting appears in the symbol's own reviewed description or in one of its documented meanings.
A dot for a limb behind the body.
Its visual description places it there: “A small dot placed on the stave at the height of the limb it describes”
A vertical dash for a limb in front.
Its visual description places it there: “A short vertical dash placed on the stave at the height of the limb it describes”
A horizontal dash for a limb at stave level.
Its visual description places it there: “A short horizontal dash placed on the stave at the height of the limb it describes”
A five-line stave read as a body seen from behind.
Its a documented meaning places it there: “Is read horizontally alongside a musical score, unlike Labanotation's vertical staff, which…”
Pitch and duration in one cell.
Its a documented meaning places it there: “Linear where staff notation is two-dimensional, so a chord that a sighted…”
A capital H with a raised degree, the dual of homology.
Its summary places it there: “…difference is the whole distinction from homology in notation. Cohomology carries a product structure that…”
A capital C inside a circle (©), used to indicate a claim of copyright in a work.
Its a documented meaning places it there: “…television end credits, in website footers, on sheet music and on photographs' metadata — usually in the…”
An abbreviation marking the capture of a pawn that has just passed.
Its summary places it there: “…capture, which is otherwise indistinguishable in notation from an ordinary one”
Chinese characters standing for pitches, read in columns.
Its a documented meaning places it there: “…the twentieth century, when jianpu and Western staff notation displaced it”
A note value, an equals sign and a number, fixing the tempo exactly.
Its summary places it there: “…per minute. It is the only tempo instruction in notation that is not a matter of interpretation”
A curved line joining two notes of the same pitch into one sound.
Its summary places it there: “…confusing the two is the commonest reading error in notation”
A single upright stroke, used as a separator and an operator.
Its summary places it there: “…plain upright stroke. It separates alternatives in notation, pipes output between commands on a shell, and…”
These carry an editorial context assigned during review that places them here.
A mark meaning 'again'.
A drumhead divided into four.
A lyre or harp carved on a monument, marking a musician.
Two upright bars that suspend playback.
A P in a circle.
A breath mark in recitation.
These belong to a system or a curated family that lives here. A laundry care symbol is met on a clothing label whether or not its own wording happens to say so.
Showing the 48 most firmly placed of 173. Browse by domain to see every symbol in the catalogue.
A horizontal wedge above a note, instructing extra attack.
A small note with a stroke through its stem, crushed against the beat.
A boxed fragment to be repeated freely.
A bracketed figure whose centre points at the line meaning middle C, movable up and down the staff.
A small note taking time from the note it leans on.
A vertical wavy line before a chord, spreading its notes.
A vertical line across the staff, dividing the music into bars.
A slash with two dots meaning repeat the previous bar.
A backwards-C figure with two dots, fixing the fourth line of the staff as the F below middle C.
A name cast into bronze.
Five horizontal lines mapped onto the body.
A vertical division marking one instant.
A mark above the stave for travel.
A line joining successive positions.
A bracket and a V telling a string player which way to bow.
A cell raising, lowering or restoring a pitch.
A cell giving both a note's pitch and its duration.
A cell fixing which octave a note belongs to.
A cell marking a silence of stated length.
A comma above the staff, marking where to breathe or lift.
A marking for a sweep with a wire brush.
A sound that carries further than a shout.
Signs of interval, not of pitch.
Two slanting strokes calling for a break in the sound.
A clef that moves.
A pitch drawn against a wall.
A grid of lines with dots, showing where fingers go on a fretted instrument.
Letters and figures naming a harmony without writing it out.
An X inside a circle for an open cymbal sound.
A small 8 under a clef, shifting it by an octave.
Two descending notes joined in one neume.
A circle crossed by a vertical and horizontal line, marking a closing section.
An instruction to play with the wood of the bow.
A large letter C at the start of a staff, standing for four-four time.
A long horizontal wedge opening to the right, meaning gradually louder.
A marking for a stick laid across the drum head.
Small notes showing another player's part for orientation.
Seven hand positions, one for each scale degree.
An instruction to return to the beginning.
An instruction to return to the sign.
A lozenge notehead for a harmonic or a bell.
A long horizontal wedge closing to the right, meaning gradually quieter.
An instruction splitting one section into parts.
A dot after a notehead, adding half the note's own length again.
Two vertical lines marking a structural division.
A small saltire-like cross, raising a note by two semitones.
A staff read as a kit.
Slashes across a stem indicating rapid repetition.
If you can describe what you saw as well as where, say both: “winged skull on a gravestone” narrows a list of 191 to a handful.