A question about the positioning of “D.S. al Coda,” “D.C. al Coda,” etc. In the “New Real Books,” for example, the Segno and Coda symbols are always placed above the staff, but “D.S. al Coda” is placed below the staff. So, I’m used to this layout. However, in recent years, I’ve noticed that “D.S. al Coda” is increasingly being placed above as well. It makes sense since the individual Segno and Coda symbols are also placed above. However, I still can’t quite get used to placing it above. It always looks odd to me. I’m curious about how you do it. Do you place everything above? Or do you put Segno, Coda, Fine, etc., above and “D.S. al Coda,” etc., below? Perhaps it’s more common to write it above now because default settings place it there? I understand that this is a rather insignificant question, but every time I have to set it, I think about it. So I thought I’d just ask.
Standard practice (called by some “the rules”) is that the signs are notated above the staff but D.S.…, D.C. …, and Fine appear below.
I just leafed through a few volumes of the original, Hal Leonard 6th ed. and Sher New Real Books. All of the “legal” editions have things placed according to this practice on the pages I saw, and in one of the old books the placement varied.
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Thank you, this helped. So I will continue to adhere to this layout. Thanks a lot.