You may have come across a symbol, 8va or 8vb, in your music and you aren’t quite sure what it wants you to do.  8va or 8vb is actually a symbol used quite often because it is quite useful!

So what does an 8va or 8vb mean in music?  An 8va is a musical symbol used to tell you to play the exact same notes as written, but an octave (an octave is 8 notes) either higher or lower.  Play an octave higher when 8va is written above.  Play an octave lower when 8va is written below.  An 8vb is a symbol used in music to tell you to play the exact notes written, only play them an octave lower.  

There’s a couple of ways you may have found the 8va or the 8vb symbol.  Let’s take a look at both of them and see all the ways it can be used.

8va

Written music originated in Italy, thus the words are often written in Italian.  8va is a symbol that means ottava (oh-TAH-vah) in Italian.  Ottava in Italian, stands for octave.  An octave is 8 notes.  You can then know to play the music exactly as written, only one octave either higher or lower.

8va is a really great symbol because it simplifies written music both for the composer and the pianist.  Instead of having multiple ledger lines extending higher and higher up, the music can be written much more simply with with an 8va.  Reading ledger lines as a pianist can be difficult as well, thus an 8va helps with that too.

Here are a few ways you may see 8va:

This next example shows that an 8va can be written with a loco.  Loco means to resume playing the notes as written.  The dotted lines help you to know which notes you should continue playing 8va, or one octave higher in this case.

This next example shows 8va bassa.  This could also be written as 8vb.  In this example, you should play the notes one octave lower until it resumes to the notes as written with loco.

You may find an 8 written above or below the clef sign in your music.  An 8 written above the clef means to play the whole line as one octave higher.  You can assume that you will be playing one octave higher until there is no longer an 8 written above the clef sign.  An 8 written below the clef sign means to play the whole line as one octave lower.  You can assume that you will be playing one octave lower until there is no longer an 8 written below the clef sign.

In this example, the 8 is written above the treble clef:

Does 8va Apply to Both Hands?

8va only applies to the notes that it is written above. So if the 8va is written above the right hand, then just the right hand plays an octave higher.  If it is written below the bass clef, then just the left hand plays an octave lower.

If the composer desires to have both hands 8va, that is notated.  It may say “8va both hands” written above the music that should be played an octave higher.

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8vb

Occasionally, you may see an 8vb sign.  This can also be written as 8va bassa (see the example above), as 8a b, or as 8vb.  It means a “low octave”.  Thus, you play one octave lower.

It seems that 8vb is a term that has been more adopted by Americans.  I was not able to find this out for sure being as there is so arguments for and against it.  But there are music notation software that don’t even offer 8vb as a musical term, possibly for that reason.

Most generally, people know what it means, and you can still find it in music today.

What Does 15ma Mean?

You may find a 15ma written above your music.  15ma means “quindicesima” in Italian. This is written to indicate that the passage, or notes, should be played 2 octaves higher (or lower if it is written beneath the notes).