Strange symbol similar to a fermata

[joyussohl]

 I wasn't sure where to post this, since I'm not a student and have been playing for 40 years, but I'm recently encountering a strange symbol in the Christian praise team sheet music I'm given, and I'm not quite sure what it means.
It always looks to me like a bandaged finger with a dot indicating the 'knuckle' below the fingertip, and I'd guess it's a distorted fermata . . . what is that thing?

[1piano4joe]

I can't be sure without seeing what your describing but it may be a fermata. There are (to my knowledge anyway) three kinds of fermata. A round one is by far the most common. There are two others a square fermata and a triangle fermata. Some modern composer's have expanded the symbol's usage to indicate approximate duration. Different shapes and sizes indicate the duration of the hold. If posting a picture isn't possible, I would suggest either a google search for musical symbols or checking out either wikipedia or the dolmetsch website for music. Hope that helps, Joe.

[joyussohl]

OK I attached a scan of that section - sorry it's a bad scan - I'm still new at using the scanner, but the image includes the odd fermata.
Thank you for replying.

[1piano4joe]

The triangle fermata is short and the square is long. The curvature of your symbol suggests to me that it's just a stylized regular fermata where the top is unusually thickened and resembles a sort of wig and is probably a typesetter/printing thing. I hope that helps. Joe.

There are also double dotted and triple dotted fermata which sometimes use a number supposedly to indicate the duration of the hold. What does two or three times infinity or my discretion exactly mean anyway? Anybody understand this?

[joyussohl]

hahhaha well . .I'd guess it's relative to the entire piece... if there's a triple dotted fermata, it means . hold it three times as long as you held the single... artistic expression.  funny!!

[j_menz]

It's a regular fermata. It only looks odd because of the weird font used (check out the clefs).

[quantum]

I concur, it is a regular fermata.  The font is different that's all.  I've frequently encountered this style font in jazz charts.  In my version of Finale the font is actually called "Jazz."

[ajspiano]

i concur also.

[keypeg]

When I learned to hand draw music, there were three steps to the fermata - the curved shape, the dot, and thickening the top part.  This symbol looks like an exaggeration of "thickening the top part".  It's a weirdly drawn fermata.

[scherzo123]

I agree with j_menz.