Ottava (8va)
A marking, written 8va or 8vb, that tells the player to read the notes on the staff one octave higher or lower than written.
Also called: 8va, 8vb, 8va bassa, octave sign
Ottava is Italian for octave, and in music it appears as 8va, for ottava alta, meaning play one octave higher, and 8vb, for ottava bassa, meaning play one octave lower. A dashed bracket shows the passage it affects, and the marking ends where the bracket ends or where the word loco appears. The marking keeps very high or very low passages on the staff without long rows of ledger lines. Guitar scores commonly use 8vb to show that the guitar sounds an octave below the written pitch. The marking 15ma shifts the sound by two octaves. The written notes do not change, only the sounding octave does.
Related terms
- OctaveThe interval of twelve semitones between two notes with the same name, where the upper note vibrates at twice the frequency.
- Ledger lineA short extra line above or below the staff, used to write notes that lie beyond the five staff lines.
- StaffThe set of five horizontal lines and four spaces on which pitch is written, read from bottom to top.
- TablatureA notation that shows where to place the fingers on a fretted or keyed instrument, rather than the pitch of each note.