The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

Marking
Dynamic
Means …
ppp
pianississimo
Very, very soft
pp
pianissimo
Very soft
p
piano
Soft
mp
mezzo piano
Medium soft
mf
mezzo forte
Medium loud
f
forte
Loud
ff
fortissimo
Very loud
fff
fortississimo
Very, very loud
The dynamic marking, just like the tempo marking, typically appears at the
beginning of the song. If you don’t see a dynamic marking, that means the song
should be played at a medium volume.
Use dynamic markings to indicate how loud a song should be played.
Changing Dynamics
Dynamics can—and do—change throughout the course of a piece of music.

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Part 2:
Rhythms
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To abruptly change the volume level at a specific point, insert a new dynamic
marking. It’s okay to indicate dramatic changes in volume; you can go from pp
in one measure to ff in the next, if you want.
To gradually change the volume of a song, you have to use what we call 
crescendo
and 
decrescendo
marks. The crescendo mark (which looks like a giant hairpin,
closed at the left and widening to the right) indicates that you gradually increase
the volume from your current level to the new level indicated at the end of the
crescendo. The decrescendo mark (which looks like a hairpin open at the left
and closed at the right) indicates that you gradually decrease the volume from
your current level to the new level indicated at the end of the decrescendo.
Crescendos and decrescendos indicate gradual increases or decreases in volume.
Crescendos and decrescendos can be relatively short (just a beat or two) or
extend over multiple measures. Obviously, the longer the crescendo or
decrescendo, the more gradual is the change in volume.
Play It Harder
If you want a specific note to be played louder than the other notes around it,
you’ll want to place an 
accent 
mark (>) over that note. When a note is accented,
you simply play it louder than a normal note.
To indicate that a note is to be played very loud (or hit very hard, if you’re writ-
ing a percussion part), you place a 
marcato 
( ˆ ) over the note. This means you
play or hit that extra hard—with a good solid punch!
You can use three other markings to indicate a sudden accent. These markings,
like all Italian notation, are placed under the note in question, as detailed in the
following table.
Italian Accent Markings