Performance Indications in music are often written instructions that tell the performer something about how to play it.  They can often include information about tempo (how fast to play a passage), dynamics (how loud or soft), pitch (what notes to play), timbre (the specific sound of the notes), articulation, expression, muting, etc.  

The following is an indefinitely incomplete list of performance indications, both generally used across music and some of our favorites from French composer Erik Satie, who was known for his colorful instructions.  Many of these terms are in Italian, with their corresponding translation below.  Please use this list as a reference and jumping-off point as you craft your own indications!

accelerando (with increasing speed)
adagio (slowly)
agitato (in an agitated manner)
allegretto (fairly quickly or briskly)
allegro (quickly, in a brisk, lively manner)
amoroso (lovingly)
andante (at a moderately slow tempo)
andantino (slightly faster than andante)
animato (in a lively manner)
appassionato (impassioned)
assai ((in combination) very)
calando (with gradually decreasing tone and speed)
cantabile (in a singing style)
con ((in combination) with)
con affeto (with tender emotion)
con amore (lovingly)
con anima (with spirit)
con brio (vigorously)
con fuoco (with fire)
con moto (quickly)
crescendo (gradual increase in loudness)
diminuendo (gradual decrease in loudness)
dolce (gently and sweetly)
doloroso (in a sorrowful manner)
energico (energetically)
espressivo (expressively)
forte (loud or loudly)
fortissimo (very loud)
furioso (in a frantically rushing manner)
giocoso (merry)
grave (solemn and slow)
grazioso (graceful)
lacrimoso (sad and mournful)
largo (slowly and broadly)
larghetto (slowly and broadly, but less so than largo)
legato (smoothly and connectedly)
leggiero (light)
lento (slowly)
maestoso (majestically)
marziale (martial)
mezzo ((in combination) moderately)
moderato (at a moderate tempo)
molto ((in combination) very)
non troppo or non tanto ((in combination) not too much; moderately, e.g., adagio ma non troppo, slowly but not too much)
pianissimo (very quietly)
piano (softly)
più ((in combination) more)
pizzicato ((in music for stringed instruments) to be plucked with the finger)
poco or un poco ((in combination) a little)
pomposo (in a pompous manner)
presto (very fast)
prestissimo (faster than presto)
quasi ((in combination) almost, as if)
rallentando (becoming slower)
rubato (with a flexible tempo)
scherzando (in jocular style)
sciolto (free and easy)
semplice (simple and unforced)
sforzando (with strong initial attack)
smorzando (dying away)
sospirando ('sighing', plaintive)
sostenuto (in a smooth and sustained manner)
sotto voce (extremely quiet)
staccato ((of notes) short, clipped, and separate)
strascinando (stretched out)
strepitoso (noisy)
stringendo (with increasing speed)
tanto ((in combination) too much)
tardo (slow)
troppo ((in combination) too much)
vivace (in a brisk lively manner)
volante ('flying', fast and light)

Satie’s Indications:

A bit hot

A bit rococo but slow

Advise yourself most carefully

A little cooked

A little warm

Alone, for a moment

Alone, opposite

A lot of expression and slower

Almost invisible

Apply within yourself

Apply yourself to renunciation

Arching your back

As if you were congested

As quiet as Baptiste

Assertively

Attaching too much importance

Attentively

At the top of your voice, don't you think?

Avoid any sacrilegious excitement

Be an hour late

Be-dig yourself

Be fixed

Behave yourself, please: a monkey is watching you

Behind

Be invited

Be unaware of your own presence

Be visible for a moment

Blackish

Both hands together

Bounce back scantily

Breathe

Broad as possible

Broadening your head

Broaden your impression

Brutal

Bury the Sound

Caeremoniosus

Calm and profoundly gentle

Calm without slowness

Carefully

Caressing

Carried Away

Carry that further

Casually

Cautiously and slowly

Cloisterly

Coldly

Continue without losing consciousness

Convince

Corpulentus

Courageously easy and obligingly alone

Cultivate renunciation

Cumulatively

Curtain

Dance inwardly

Dancing

Deferentially

Detached but not dry

Determined

Do as I do

Do not change your physiognomy

Do not leave your shadow

Do not cough

Do not eat too much

Do not go out

Do not inflate

Do not look disagreeable

Do not lose your bearings

Do not speak

Do not swallow

Do not sweat

Do not torment yourself

Dry as a cuckoo

End for yourself

Energetic

Energetically

Enigmatic

Enthusiastically

Epotus

Even duller if you can

Even whiter if possible

Fairly alert

Fall till you are weak

Fascinatedly

Fast

Fatten

Fidgety

Fierce and forbidding

Flat on the floor

Floating

Fold carefully

Fold gently

From a distance, bored

From afar

From the top of yourself

Full of subtlety, if you believe me

Gaily

Gawp

Gently

Genuinely

Get late bit by bit without equivocation

Get soaked

Gird yourself with perceptiveness

Give orders quietly

Go away!

Go down

Go on

Good-naturedly

Graciously

Grandiose

Grandly forgetting the present

Grow bigger

Grow pale

Gummy

Haggard in your body

Half way

Hard as the devil?

Have a drink

Heavy

High

Hold back

Hypocritically

Illusory

Imbibe

Imitative

Impassive

Important

In a very peculiar manner

Indubitable

Inevitably

Inflexible

In force

In one breath

In the back of your throat

In the best

In the deepest silence

In the pit of your belly

In the ribs

Into the slow

In your head

Ironically

Is your feeling mellow?

Lacquered like a chinaman

Lastly

Laugh without anyone knowing

Learnedly

Light as an egg

Light, but decent

Light, but loud

Lightly animated

Lights out

Like a gentle request

Like a nightingale with toothache

Look closely, that is all

Looking at yourself from afar

Looking at it twice

Look like a fraud

Meanly

Melancholy

Moderate and very bored

Moderate joy

Modestly

More intimately

More relaxedly

Mysterious and tender

Naturally

Neapolitan

Necessarily

Nice

Nobly

Nocturnally

Nocturnus

Noiselessly, believe me again

Not too rare

Okay

Obligingly

One step at a time

On fire

On the tip of your mind

On the tips of your back teeth

On yellowing velvet

On your tongue

Opacus

Open your head

Out of the corner of your hand

Outward, painfully

Paedagogus

Pale and priest-like

Paululum

Peacefully

Perfect

Physiognomical

Play out, don't you think?

Play right out

Pleasurably, without shyness

Plenty of action

Positively

Preciously

Push apart

Put yourself in the shade

Questioning

Quite blue

Quite slow

Quite well done

Quiver like a leaf

Rather cold

Rather slow, if you would

Riddled

Rise on your fingers

Rising

Rocking

Run

Sad

Sad and more and more calm

Same assertiveness but more inward

Scratch

Second helping

Seriously but without tears

Shake yourself

Silently, please

Sing

Sing seriously

Skilfully

Slow and grave

Slow and painful

Slow down good-naturedly

Slow down kindly

Slow down mentally

Slow down politely

Smile

So as to make a hollow

Sombre

Sound surprised

Stay (half a second) right in front of you

Steady as she goes

Sticky

Stir it up inside

Straight in front of you

Subitus

Substantialis

Superstitiously

Supple

Take your hand off and put it in your pocket

Tell yourself about it

Tender

Tough as the devil

Try some more

Turbulent

Turn pale

Under the pomegranites

Up on your fingers

Very affectionate

Very boring

Very carefully

Very Christian

Very down to earth

Very far away

Very lost

Very much

Very nice

Very sheepish

Very shining

Very sincerely silent

Very sticky

Very suitable

Very Turkish

Very white

Virtuous

Visible for a moment

Weep like a willow

Weighty

White

White and immobile

Whiter

Wholly and completely

Winking

With a broad view

With a full chest

With a healthy superiority

With amazement

With both hands

With camaraderie

With ceremony

With conviction and stern sadness

With delicate intimacy

With great goodness

With great seriousness and courteous gravity

With inane but appropriate naivety

Without batting an eyelid too much

Without getting annoyed

Without grandeur

Without hurrying

Without ostentation

Without pride

Without trembling too much

Without wickedness

Without your fingers blushing

With righteous anger

With sadness

With sadness and inevitability

With shy piety

With slowness

With tears in your fingers

With tenderness

With the flow

With the tips of your eyes and holding back in advance

With timid piety

With your body

With your bones dry and distant

With your hand above

With your hand on your conscience

With your head between your hands

With no shine

You see