Stave Stave This is a good starting point for beginners! Stave is the name for the five parallel, equally-spaced, horizontal lines which hold one or more parts of music: An alternative name, still used in some countries, is staff, with staves as the plural (see alternative names for different names used in different countries) At the far left of a stave, there should always be a vertical line with either small brackets as on the stave above, or with a brace which spans multiple staves (see example to the right) to group two or more staves together. Multiple staves that are held together with a bracket or brace are often just called a "line", but this term can be confusing, so the term "system" is preferred, although this is not in very common usage. For example, if a choir leader or conductor refers to the "second line", it is not necessarily clear whether he/she is referring to the second stave or the second system (counting from the top of the page).

The stave represents two aspects of music at once, but neither is represented absolutely or strictly: Time is represented on a stave horizontally: Music on a single stave or system is read starting from the left and moving towards the right. When you reach the right-hand end of the stave or system, you go immediately to the left hand of the stave or system below, just as you do when reading a book. Horizontal distance is not "to scale" or consistent. It cannot be compared exactly between two different pieces of music, or even necessarily between different places in the same piece of music. In one piece of music, two inches/centimetres measured horizontally on the stave might represent 5 seconds, in another piece, two inches/centimetres might represent half a second. Frequency or pitch is represented on a stave vertically, and notes are placed on the stave to indicate their note pitch : A high note is placed higher on the stave than a low note.

A note is higher than another if it has faster vibrations - see the explanation of frequency or pitch The representation of frequency or pitch on the stave is not absolute: a note at one particular vertical position on one stave might not sound the same pitch as an identically-positioned note on another stave. However, the stave becomes an absolute indicator of frequency or pitch by the placement of a clef at the beginning of each stave. For example: A note is drawn on a stave either straddling one of the five lines, or within one of the four spaces, for example: The "head" of a note (a filled or hollow circle) should be the same size as the gap between two lines. Notes can also be positioned on the stave outside the five existing lines, on extensions called ledger-lines, for example: or: or: The stave can be viewed simply as a "place-holder" so that the vertical position of dots on the page can be correctly viewed. On a single stave, the pitch of each note is indicated by the vertical position of it on the page. This would be difficult to judge without a simple graphical method for judging the relative positions of these notes.

In order to write all the music that is required to sound at once, more than one stave is often needed. This may be because there are many parts , or because the range of the music is too wide to be held on one stave, or both of these may be true. The following examples give some of the possibilities of multiple staves making up each system. Here, the brace at the far left brackets together all the staves which form a line or system of music. Two staves like this are usually used for piano music, when the top stave is normally for notes played with the right hand, and the bottom stave is normally for notes played by the left hand. Organ music requires three staves, two for the hands, as for piano music, and an extra one added at the bottom for notes played on the pedals. A brace is often used on the staves for the hands. When a four-part choir sings, they often read from four lines of music, with parts for Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass, with the words written underneath each line. Usually, each member of the choir has a full copy, and reads only their own line.

In this example, the tenors sing an octave lower than written (see clef ). Choirs with a different makeup, e.g. a male-voice choir, would have different numbers of staves according to how many parts are being sung, and different clefs according to the different voices. A four-part choir can also sing from "short-score": Here, Soprano (S) and Alto (A) share the top stave, and Tenor (T) and Bass (B) share the bottom. For more details, see the details of parts . For a whole orchestra, the conductor reads from a full score, but each member of the orchestra has a part which only gives their own line. In a full score, the different instruments are arranged into their families, so that all the strings are bracketed together, all the woodwind, and all the brass. Then, if there is more than one part for a particular instrument, as in this example for flutes, oboes and trumpets, they may be written on one stave or two.

Music Staff The Music Staff The music staff (or music stave as it is also called) is the series of 5 lines and 4 spaces that music is written down on. Music notation developed from one single line, used in the early days of writing down church chants. The first person to come up with the idea of writing music down on a line was Guido of Arezzo who was a Benedictine monk and singing teacher who became famous across North Italy for the speed at which he managed to teach students to sing chants. He also invented the doh-re-me system, although it was called ut-re-me when he first developed it. If you are interested in reading more about the history and development of writing music down click here to read an article on the history of musical notation on Wikipedia and watch Howard Goodall's TV series Big Bangs which is a great introduciton into the 'Big Bangs' that changed the course of music history. It is very accessible and entertaining to watch, while at the same time being extremely informative. Highly recommended! Big Bangs is available on Amazon.com , Amazon.co.uk as movies and books or from the iBook store The terms music staff and music stave are interchangeable.

Staff tends to be the American usage and Stave tends to be the British usage. I shall use staff on this site. Here is a picture of the staff showing the lines and spaces Position of the notes on the music staff The position of notes on the lines or in the spaces determines the pitch of the note. Pitch is how high or low a note is. The scientific word for what musicians call pitch is frequency. The higher the note on the staff, the higher the pitch of the sound. It doesn't matter which clef is used, this rule is always the same. If the notes are higher on the staff, they are higher in pitch. If the notes are lower on the staff, they are lower in pitch. Notes can be on a line or in a space. When a note is on a line the staff line runs through the middle of the note. When a note is in a space it sits between the staff lines. In both of the examples above the first and last notes are on lines, the middle notes are in spaces. When two staves are joined together the Grand Staff is made. I will use the Grand Staff as a teaching tool on this site.

You may think you only need to learn the Treble (G) or Bass (F) clef for your particular instrument, but you will learn much faster and have a more complete knowledge of music theory if you learn to read music using the Grand Staff. Click here to learn about the Grand Staff and start learning how to read the notes! A Clear Path To Learning Music Theory For more help check out my new theory book Essential Music Theory: Learn To Read And Appreciate Music Vol. 1 available for iPad and Mac OS. A simple step-by-step course that takes you from complete beginner to grade 2 music theory Multi-faceted learning - audio, video, mind maps, clear musical examples Built in quizzes to check your understanding The Music Notation Project — Alternative music notation systems Show less about Key Signatures | Collapse all sections on this page The traditional staff is based upon the notes from the key of C major and closely related tonalities. This makes all of the other keys and tonalities more difficult to read, even if they are just as easy to play on a given instrument. To become proficient in all keys one must master fifteen different key signatures which are progressively more complex and difficult to learn.

On a chromatic staff all of the keys are equally easy to read. There is no need to memorize and remember key signatures. Reading music is more direct as you simply play the notes that you see, without having to filter them through a memorized key signature. In traditional notation, key signatures not only alter the pitches of the lines and spaces but also alert the reader to the music’s predominant key. With a chromatic staff, a much simpler alternative key signature system can be used for the latter purpose, helping the musician know which notes to expect. Accidentals In traditional notation accidental signs must be used to represent accidentals — notes that are not in the current key signature. On a chromatic staff they are not needed since all notes have their own position on the staff, making it easier to see each note’s pitch and how it relates to other notes. Show less about Accidentals Music that requires many accidental signs in traditional notation can be visually challenging to read, especially if it is in an unfamiliar and complex key signature. The rule that an accidental sign applies to a given pitch until the end of the measure, unless it is cancelled by another one, opens up room for mistakes and gives the musician one more thing to remember.

There is often confusion about whether an accidental applies to other octaves of the same note (it generally does not). On a chromatic staff accidental signs are not needed because each of the twelve notes of the chromatic scale has its own unique position on the staff, regardless of whether it is in the prevailing key. This makes it easier to identify the pitch of accidental notes and to see how they relate to surrounding notes. Optional “alternative accidental signs” may be used to simply indicate that a note falls outside of the current key (without affecting the note’s pitch), or they may be used to distinguish between enharmonically equivalent notes if desired (see Enharmonic Equivalents tutorial). Clefs In traditional notation, staves that look the same may represent different sets of notes, depending on the clef symbol. On a typical chromatic staff the lines and spaces always represents the same notes, and an octave or register symbol simply indicates the staff’s pitch range. Show less about Clefs Traditional notation is commonly written in four different clefs: treble, bass, alto, and tenor. Each clef changes which notes are represented by the lines and spaces of the staff.

Keyboard players have the additional challenge of learning to read both treble and bass clefs at the same time. Key signatures appear at a different vertical position in each of the different clefs (see key signatures above). Octaves On a traditional staff, two notes an octave apart do not look alike. If a note falls on a line, the note an octave higher or lower will fall on a space (and vice-versa). On chromatic staves like the one above, notes an octave apart look the same. Notes are easy to identify since a given note always has the same appearance regardless of its octave. Show less about Octaves The traditional staff is based on an odd number of seven notes per octave (a diatonic scale), which is why notes an octave apart do not both appear on lines (or both on spaces). Chromatic staves are based on an even number of twelve notes per octave (a chromatic scale), so notes an octave apart can both fall on lines (or both on spaces). Most chromatic staves “cycle on the octave” so that each octave looks the same. This allows them to be ‘stacked’ to form a continuous staff that spans two or more octaves as shown above.

This accommodates the different pitch ranges of various instruments and reduces the need to use ledger lines. (Note that alternative notation systems that use a diatonic staff with irregularly spaced lines can also cycle on the octave so that notes an octave apart look the same. See for example, Nydana Notation .) Intervals Intervals that look the same in traditional notation may not be the same interval. In this illustration, whole steps and half steps are visually indistinguishable, as are major and minor thirds. What you see does not always correspond with what you hear and must play. Chromatic staves represent intervals more consistently and more accurately. As shown in this illustration of a C major scale, whole steps are always two notes on two neighboring lines or on two neighboring spaces. Half steps are always one note on a line and another on a neighboring space. Show less about Intervals Traditional notation obscures the interval relationships between notes. For example, a major scale (a series of whole steps and half steps, as shown above) appears as a regular sequence of notes, while a whole tone scale (a series of identical whole steps) appears as an irregular sequence.

To fully identify an interval one must take into account the current clef sign, key signature, and any accidentals, going through the mental procedure of calculating the names of the individual notes before their interval relationship can be determined. Chromatic staves give a consistent and accurate representation of the intervals between notes. This clearer representation of intervals makes it much easier to recognize the interval patterns that make up various scales, or any interval pattern prevalent within a given musical genre or tradition. It also simplifies the comprehension of harmony and music theory, for example, allowing easy recognition of major and minor thirds and the chords that are built from them. Finally, it would help with learning to improvise or play by ear since these are skills that entail playing by interval relationships. It may seem that chromatic staves are only suited for atonal music, but in fact they work well with all types of music: traditional or modern, tonal or atonal, etc. They are actually much better than traditional notation at representing the diatonic interval patterns that are the basis of tonal music. Diatonic interval patterns are built into the traditional staff, obscured from view and from awareness, but a chromatic staff makes them explicit, easy to perceive, and simple to understand.

See our Intervals Tutorial for more extensive illustrations and discussion. A Better Approach to Music Notation All of these features of traditional music notation combine to make reading music much more difficult than it might be with a better notation system. For an analogy, imagine trying to do arithmetic with Roman numerals . It can be done, but the notation system makes a big difference. Of course it is important to view traditional notation in its broader historical context and to keep in mind the innovations and reforms that it has undergone over time. [2] Alternative music notation systems with chromatic staves avoid each of these pitch-related difficulties, and offer significant advantages over traditional music notation. [3] Notation Systems — Check out some alternative music notation systems. Tutorials — Learn about various approaches to alternative music notation. [1] Arnold Schoenberg was probably the most influential 20th-century composer of Western “classical music.” It is less commonly known that he also invented a chromatic staff notation system . This quote is from his “A New Twelve-Tone Notation,” written in 1924 (see Style and Idea: Selected Writings of Arnold Schoenberg ).

Although Schoenberg was a proponent of atonal, non-diatonic music, his statement is relevant for all kinds of music. Most alternative notation systems were invented primarily with traditional tonal music in mind, and we are interested in making all types of music easier to read and play. Though we quote Schoenberg we do not discount the importance of diatonic scales and keys. Chromatic staff notation systems actually represent diatonic scales, tonalities, and their intervals much more faithfully than traditional notation. See Intervals on this page, and our Intervals Tutorial . [2] Traditional notation was developed over several centuries for use with music and instruments that were different from those of today. Guido d’Arezzo introduced his staff-based system in about 1025 CE, but the five-line staff only became standardized in the 1500s. This staff-based notation was a significant achievement that improved upon the notation systems that preceded it, and it has continued to evolve over time to address new notational needs as they arose. [3] One of the few disadvantage to chromatic staves is that they typically require more vertical space on the page, since they include five additional notes per octave.

Some notation systems solve this problem, for example these notations with more than one notehead shape , Express Stave notation , and Clairnote notation . The Music Notation Project Simplifying the Grand Staff Simplifying the Grand Staff This article explores the nature of music staff notation and explains the purpose of the grand staff. It also illustrates that the grand staff is needlessly complex, and then demonstrates that we could have had an effective but simpler alternative. To get started we'll look at single staff notation. Then we'll take a jaunt into music fiction and a look at examples of simpler grand staves. Single staff notation Most musical instruments have a pitch range of roughly two or three octaves. This amounts to 16 to 24 natural notes. As shown here, a five-line notation staff can hold only 11 natural notes. These 11 notes amount to a pitch range of an octave and a 4th, and most instruments have more notes than that. However with the addition of three ledger lines. above and below the staff, a single staff is capable of displaying more than three octaves of pitch, which is sufficient for most instruments. The following staff ranges from E to D, and covers three octaves and a second.

Read more about ledger lines ... Grand Staff notation Some instruments have a range greater than three octaves. The piano has 88 notes—that's over seven octaves. To avoid using of a ridiculous number of ledger lines musicians created an extended staff—the modern day grand staff. The grand staff is the protagonist in this revery. Shown below, with two ledger lines, the grand staff has a pitch range of four octaves and a third. (A grand staff with three ledger lines has a pitch range that's one note short of five octaves.) The inherent challenge of the Grand Staff The grand staff is a very useful tool indeed, but one of questionable design. There are lots of musical structures and terms based on questionable logic. The grand staff is one such structure. Iit could have been much simpler! Many people find the modern grand staff difficult to learn and difficult to read. It's a complicated scenario indeed because it's composed of two different clefs: there's a treble clef on top, and a bass clef below. Thus the letter names of the lines and spaces differ between the upper staff and the lower staff, as shown in the image above.

For instance, the name of the bottom line of the bass clef is G; whereas the name of the bottom line of the treble clef is E. Many late comers to music literacy claim that reading grand staff notation takes two brains, one for each hand of the piano. The clef discrepancy is a large contributing factor. Music Fiction — A simpler grand staff The grand staff would be much simpler if composed of two matching clefs. Surprisingly there are a number of ways to achieve this end. Given the inherent simplicity of the the first solution below, it's hard to imagine why it wasn't adopted originally. So we proceed with an article of music fiction , a treatise on "what could have been" by offering some designs for a simpler grand staff. Solution 1 — The dual-G clef To a standard treble clef add an "A" ledger line below the middle C ledger line. Yes this means there will be two ledger lines between the staves of the grand staff. Then add another treble clef directly below, actually a transposing clef two octaves lower. Both staves look like treble clefs, however the lower staff is two octaves lower than the upper. That's it. Viola!

(I mean, "Voilà!") Now the staff lines are lettered consistently, and the clefs match. Yes, the grand staff could have be designed like this: Result: There are two ledger lines between the two staves (instead of one) The addition of the extra ledger line increases the note span of the staves by two notes, which is an additional beneficial (the primary purpose of the grand staff is to increase the note span.) The letter names of the upper and lower staves match The lower staff of the grand staff is exactly two octaves lower than the upper staff The negative 2 (–2) below the lower clef indicates that this clef actually sounds two octaves lower a regular treble clef. (16vb was considered confusing.) This approach eliminates the bass clef, and relies entirely on the treble clef, the most widely read clef, one that would be readily familiar to most musicians. Change the standard so the octave numbering changes at A and you got middle A, B and C between the upper and lower staves of the grand staff. Solution 2 — The six line dual-A clef Here's another simple grand staff with identical lettering on each staff.

This approach departs from the five line staff. In essence we start with a treble clef. Then we extend middle C ledger line to the full width of the staff. In other words, the sixth line (the lowest line) is the note formerly known as middle C. The result is lovely: Result: We get a six-line staff by adding a C line below the E line of the treble clef The single ledger line between staves would naturally be A (hurray for A!) The new grand staff possesses two identically letter staves, with A always between, above and below. Nice symmetry! The top five lines of each staff still read just like treble clef Shown is a proposed "A clef" which assigns A to the middle space of the staff ... or there could be a "Grand A" clef, which assigns A to the line between staves. This arrangement nicely emphasizes A, which seems fitting. It would also make sense to use a single clef between clefs to identify middle A.

Due to the extra line in each staff and the ledger line between the two staves the note span of this grand staff is increased by six notes, which is critical (the primary purpose of the grand staff is increased note span.) NOTE: The staves of the actual grand staff are separated by a single ledger line at middle C. Arguably this is appropriate and necessary, or we'd have an instance where letter names change "from space to space" instead of alternately always from line to space, then space to line. I've only pursued solutions that honored this approach. Solution 3 — The dual-F clef You get the idea. The lower clef would be the standard F clef. The two ledger lines above it would be middle C and E, and the upper clef would be an F clef pitched two octaves above the lower one. The Evolution of Languages There many peculiarities in the music language, music notation, and music theory. Some of us swallow the sqirming beast whole, without a thought. Others questions the oddites and complexities, and they wonder how some of the fundamentals get so royally fouled up. Music language and music notation evolved like spoken languages. Essentially they construct themselves.

Terms, and grammar and conjugation twist and change unpredictably, at times without respect to coherent rules, logical structure or predictable pattern. Irregular verbs are a good example. Once a language advances to written form it begins to congeal and stabilize. The appearance of printing, dictionaries and mass media further cement the bulk of practice and verbiage, while it continues to fizzle and form unpredictably around its edges. There is no "governing committee" until these final stages. Everyday people are the unwary contributors. Languages form themselves without oversight nor according to design. If they borrow and steal extensively from other languages, they, like English, have truly outrageous and unpredictable spelling. All languages have idioms and internal contradictions. Here's a couple of examples. Basically there's no difference between going "up the street" or "going down the street." We park in driveways and we drive on parkways. It's pretty nutty, and a real challenge for adults learning English as a second language. But native speakers comfortably negotiate these linguistic oddities and contradictions without even noticing—in fact, once pointed out, these unconscious absurdities generally provoke a good laugh.

Like any language the conventions of music notation evolved due to countless forces, innovations, and common practices. With the rise of notation, monks with quills began to stabilize and define it's structure and presentation. Gutenberg and music engraving stabilized matters further. And now we're pretty much stuck with what we have. A weird system that works pretty darn well, but looks shockingly peculiar to the unindoctrinated. Ledger lines This section is essentially a footnote about ledger lines. As mentioned above, a single five-line staff allows us to notate a range of 11 notes; this narrow range is just shy of one and a half octaves, insufficient except for the simplest instruments. Ledger lines help address this need by extending the staff. Each ledger line extends the staff's range by two addition natural notes. Musicians can comfortably read up to four or five ledger lines, above or below the staff. Here we'll look at the impact of adding ledger lines above and below a staff. One ledger line A single line above and below the staff increases the range of the staff from 11 to 15 notes, almost two octaves. 11 + 2 + 2 = 15.

On a treble clef staff, that's from B to B. Two ledger lines With two lines above and below, the staff can hold 19 notes, which is two octaves and a 4th. 11 + 4 + 4 = 19 notes. For treble clef this is an octave and a 5th, from G up to D. This is the full range of the violin, up through third position. Three ledger lines With three lines above and below the staff can hold 23 notes. 11 + 6 + 6 = 23 notes. For treble clef this is three octaves, from E up to F, which is 14 frets of the guitar. Four ledger lines With four ledger above and below we the range increase to 27 notes. 27 (11 + 8 + 8). This is three octaves and a fourth. From C to A.

[Image for a not shown.] ♫♫Music World♫♫: What is a Staff (Music) Where I find the information I need to love music martes, 17 de noviembre de 2009 What is a Staff (Music) Lets find out according to our good friend wikipedia: Staff (music) In standard Western musical notation, the staff or stave[1] is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces, each of which represents a different musical pitch, or, in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments. Appropriate music symbols, depending upon the intended effect, are placed on the staff according to their corresponding pitch or function. Musical notes are placed by pitch, percussion notes are placed by instrument, and rests and other symbols are placed by convention. The absolute pitch of each line for a non-percussive stave is determined by the placement of an appropriate clef symbol at the appropriate vertical position on the left-hand side of the staff. For example, the treble clef, also known as the G clef, is placed upon the second line (counting upwards), fixing that line as the pitch first G above 'middle C'.

The lines and spaces are numbered from bottom to top; the bottom line is the first line and the top line is the fifth line. The musical staff is analogous to a mathematical graph of pitch with respect to time. Pitches of notes are given by their vertical position on the staff and notes to the left are played before notes to the right. Unlike a graph, however, the exact timing of the beginning of each note is not directly proportional to its horizontal position; rather, exact timing is encoded by the musical symbol chosen for each note in addition to the tempo. A time signature to the right of the clef indicates the relationship between timing counts and note symbols, while bar lines group notes on the staff into measures. History An example image with some typical music notation. The Staff as we know it today originated from musically annotated text, through the Gregorian Chants around the 12th to 13th centuries. Until this time, symbols were used in conjunction with text to represent pitch. However, when the chants were written, people began to use lines to represent pitch, in addition to the pitch symbols above the text. While at first only one line was used, eventually the system expanded to four lines and used mainly dots among those lines to represent pitch.

However, different numbers of lines were used throughout Europe for different instruments. France soon began to incorporate five lines into its music, which became widespread by the 16th century, and was the norm throughout Europe by the 17th century. Staff positions Staff, with staff positions indicated The vertical position of the notehead on the staff indicates which note is to be played: notes that are higher in pitch are marked higher up on the staff. The notehead can be placed with the center of its notehead intersecting a line (on a line), or in between the lines touching the lines above and below (in a space). Notes which fall outside the range of the staff are placed on or between ledger lines - lines the width of the note they need to hold - added above or below the staff. Exactly which notes are represented by which staff positions is determined by a clef placed at the beginning of the staff; the clef identifies a particular line as a specific note, and all other notes are determined relative to that line. For example, the treble clef puts the G above middle Cinterval between adjacent staff positions is one step in the diatonic scale.

Once fixed by a clef, the notes represented by the positions on the staff can be modified by the key signature, or by accidentals on individual notes. A clefless staff may be used to represent a set of percussion sounds; each line typically represents a different instrument. on the second line. The Grand staff The Grand Staff When music on two staves joined by a brace (or is intended to be played at once by a single performer (usually a keyboard instrument or the harp), a great stave (BrE) or grand staffAmE) is created. Typically, the upper staff uses a treble clef and the lower staff has a bass clef. In this instance, middle C is centered between the two staves, and it can be written on the first ledger line below the upper staff or the first ledger line above the lower staff. When playing the piano or harp, the upper staff is normally played with the right hand and the lower staff with the left hand. In music intended for the organ, a grand staff comprises three staves, one for each hand on the manuals and one for the feet on the pedalboard. ( A simple grand staff. Each of the staves shown above have seven notes and one rest.

Gregorian chant The Introit Gaudeamus omnes, scripted in square notation in the 14th—15th century Graduale Aboense, honors Henry, patron saint of Finland. Gaudeamus omnes, Introit for the Mass in honor of Henry, patron saint of Finland Click on the manuscript image and download the high-resolution version to follow along with the score, starting at the large calligraphed "G." The antiphon repeats after the psalm verse "Annunciabunt...quẽ fecit dominus" and again after the "Gloria patri.""Gloria patri" are in the manuscript; "EVOVAE" represents the vowels in the final six syllables, "sæculorum, amen." The Latin is pronounced in the manner of Renaissance Germany, based on Åbo's German ecclesiastical connections. Only the beginning and end of the Problems listening to this file? See media help. Gregorian chant is the central tradition of Western plainchant, a form of monophonic liturgical chant in Western Christianity that accompanied the celebration of Mass and other ritual services.

It is named for Pope Gregory I, who ruled as pope from 590 to 604, who is traditionally credited for having ordered the simplification and cataloging of music assigned to specific celebrations in the church calendar. The resulting body of music is the first to be notated in a system ancestral to modern musical notation. In general, the chants were learned by the viva voce method, that is by following the given example orally, which took many years of experience in the Schola Cantorum. Gregorian chant originated in Monastic life, in which singing the 'Divine Service' nine times a day at the proper hours was upheld according to the Rule of St. Benedict. Singing psalms made up a large part of the life in a monastic community, while a smaller group and soloists sang the chants. In its long history Gregorian Chant has been subjected to many gradual changes and some reforms. Ledger line Notes in ledger lines above the staff. The right lines might be considered too far above the staff and written, instead, in 8va notation. A ledger line or leger line is musical notation to inscribe notes outside the lines and spaces of the regular musical staffs.

A line slightly longer than the note is drawn parallel to the staff, above or below, spaced at the same distances as the notes within the staff (see Figure 1). Notes more than three or four ledger lines above or below the staffs are usually considered too hard to read. When there are several measures of notes outside the regular musical staffs it is usually preferable to switch clef8va notation, even though the note placement is not uniform across clefs. Some transposing instruments, such as the piccolo, double bass, guitar, and the tenor voice, transpose at the octave to avoid ledger lines. or use Players of certain instruments prefer ledger lines to clef changes or 8vaClarinetists, for example, would rather read ledger lines in the chalumeau register than read bass clef notes. Flute players would rather read ledger lines for notes in the third octave than read 8va notation because higher flute notes require different fingerings. Tuba, trombone, and euphonium players in the instruments' lower register generally prefer ledger lines below the bass staff to 8vb notation or an octave-lowered bass clef for similar reasons. notation.

v • d • e Musical notation and development Staff Bar & Bar line · Clef · Da Capo · Dal Segno · Key signature · Ledger line · Musical mode · Musical scale · Rehearsal letter · Repeat sign · Time signature · Transposition · Transposing instrument Notes Accidental (Flat · Natural · Sharp) · Dotted note ·Grace note · Note value (Beam · Note head · Stem) ·Pitch · Rest · Interval · Letter notation Articulation Dynamics · Ornament (Trill · Mordent · Grace note) ·Ossia · Portato · Accent · Legato · Tenuto ·Marcato · Staccato · Staccatissimo · Tie · Slur ·Fermata Development Coda · Exposition · Harmony · Melody · Motif ·Recapitulation · Rhythm (Beat · Meter · Tempo) ·Theme · Tonality · Atonality Related Chord chart · Figured bass · Graphic notation · Lead sheet · Eye music · Modern musical symbols ·Neume · Tablature Clef A clef indicates the name of the notes on one line of the staff, in relation to which the notes of the other lines and spaces may be determined.

In this case, the G-clef assigns the note G to the second line. Treble and Bass Clefs shown with names of the notes. A clef (French: clé "key") is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes.[1] Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the staff, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the staff may be determined. The types of clef There are three types of clef used in modern music notation: F, C, and G. Each type of clef assigns a different reference note to the line on which it is placed. Clef F below Middle C between the two dots of the clef. Once one of these clefs has been placed on one of the lines of the staff, the other lines and spaces can be read in relation to it.

The use of three different clefs makes it possible to write music for all instruments and voices, even though they may have very different tessiturasstaff has only five lines, and the number of pitches that can be represented on the staff, even with ledger lines, is not nearly equal to the number of notes the orchestra can produce. The use of different clefs for different instruments and voices allows each part to be written comfortably on the staff with a minimum of ledger lines. To this end, the G-clef is used for high parts, the C-clef for middle parts, and the F-clef for low parts - with the important exception of transposing parts, which are written at a different pitch than they sound, often even in a different octave. (that is, even though some sound much higher or lower than others). This would be difficult to do with only one clef, since the modern The positions of the clefs In order to facilitate writing for different tessituras, any of the clefs may theoretically be placed on any of the lines of the staff. The further down on the staff a clef is placed, the higher the tessitura it is for; conversely, the higher up the clef, the lower the tessitura.

Since there are five lines of the staff, and three clefs, it might seem that there would be fifteen possible clefs. Six of these, however, are redundant clefs (for example, a G-clef on the third line would be exactly the same as a C-clef on the first line). That leaves nine possible distinct clefs, all of which have been used historically: the G-clef on the two bottom lines, the F-clef on the three top lines, and the C-clef on any line of the staff except the topmost, earning the name of "movable C-clef". (The C-clef on the topmost line is redundant because it is exactly equivalent to the F-clef on the third line; both options have been used.) Each of these clefs has a different name based on the tessitura for which it is best suited. In contemporary music literature, only four clefs are used regularly: the treble clef, the bass clef, the alto clef, and the tenor clef. Of these, the treble and bass clefs are by far the most common.

Individual clefs Here follows a complete list of the clefs, along with a list of instruments and voice parts notated with them. Each clef is shown in its proper position on the staff, followed by its reference note. An obelus (†) after the name of a clef indicates that that clef is now obsolete. G-clefs The treble clef When the G-clef is placed on the second line of the staff, it is called the "treble clef". This is by far the most common clef used today, and the only G-clef still in use. For this reason, the terms G-clef and treble clef are often seen as synonymous. It was formerly also known as the "violin clef". The treble clef was historically used to mark a treble, or pre-pubescent, voice part. The lines on the treble clef staff correspond to the letters E G B D F, and can be remembered with the help of such phrases as "Every Green Bus Drives Fast", "Every Good Boy Does Fine", "Elvis Goes Belly Dancing Fridays" or "Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge".

The spaces on the treble clef staff, from bottom to top, correspond to the letters F A C E. This clef is used for the bagpipes, violin, flutes, oboe, English horn, all clarinets, all saxophones, horn, euphonium and baritone (occasionally), trumpet, guitar, vibraphone, xylophone and handbells; for the upper part of the harp and of keyboard instruments like the piano, organ, and harpsichord (with the lower part usually written in the bass stave); for the highest notes played by the cello (the old convention was to write an octave higher, unless preceded by a tenor clef), double bass, bassoon, tromboneviola (which otherwise uses the alto clef); and for the soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, contralto and tenor voices. The tenor voice is often written using an octave clef (see below) or double-treble clef.

(which otherwise use the bass and tenor clefs), and The notes from the first (bottom) line to the top line are: E4, F4, G4, A4, B4, C5, D5, E5, F5 (g' in the illustration refers to Helmholtz pitch notation) The French violin clef† When the G-clef is placed on the first line of the staff, it is called the "French clef" or "French violin clef". This clef is no longer used. Formerly, it was used by the flute and violin, especially in parts published in France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its placement causes the note names on the staff to be identical to those of the bass stave, though the actual pitches are two octaves higher. F-clefs The bass clef When the F-clef is placed on the fourth line, it is called the "bass clef". This is the only F-clef used today, so that the terms "F-clef" and "bass clef" are often regarded as synonymous.

The lines on the bass clef staff correspond to the letters G B D F A, and can be remembered with the help of the phrase "Good Boys Do Fair Always" or perhaps a more grammatically correct option would be "Great Big Dinosaurs Fly Airplanes". The spaces on the bass clef staff correspond to the letters A C E G, and can be easily remembered by saying the phrase "All Cows Eat Grass." This clef is used for the cello, euphonium, double bass, bass guitar, bassoon, contrabassoon, trombone, tuba, and timpani; for the lower part of keyboard instruments like the piano, organ, marimba and harpsichord (of which the upper part is usually written in treble clef); and for the lowest notes of the horn; and the baritone and bass voices. The contrabassoon, double bass and bass guitar are notated in bass clef an octave higher than the sound they make.

The notes starting on the bottom line bottom to top line are: G2, A2, B2, C3, D3, E3, F3, G3, A3 (or when used for Double Bass/Bass Guitar: G1, A1, B1, C2, D2, E2, F2, G2, A2) The baritone clef† -- When the F-clef is placed on the third line, it is called the baritone clef. This clef is not used. Formerly, it was used to write the baritone part in vocal music. ... The subbass clef† When the F-clef is placed on the fifth line, it is called the subbass clef. The use of this clef gives the same note names as the treble clef, but the actual notes are two octaves lower. This clef is no longer used. Formerly, it was used to write low bass parts, e.g. in the works of Heinrich Schütz. C-clefs The alto clef When the C-clef is placed on the third line of the staff, it is called the alto clef.

As with all C-clefs, this line indicates the position of middle C. This clef (sometimes called the viola clef) is currently used for the viola, the viola da gamba, and the alto trombone.[2] Formerly, it was used for the altooboes, recorders). It occasionally turns up in keyboard music to the present day (Brahms's Organ chorales, John Cage's Dream for piano). voice and for instruments playing a middle part (such as The notes from the bottom line to the top line are: F3, G3, A3, B3, C4, D4, E4, F4, G4 The tenor clef When the C-clef is placed on the fourth line of the staff, it is called the tenor clef. This clef is used for the upper ranges of the bassoon, violoncello, euphonium, double bass, and trombone (which all use the bass clef in their lower and middle ranges, and in their extreme high ranges, the treble clef as well).

Formerly, it was used by the tenor part in vocal music but its use has been largely supplanted either with an octave version of the treble clef when written alone or the bass clef when combined on one staff with the bass part. The baritone clef† Occasionally in the past, the C-clef was placed on the fifth line, and it is called the baritone-clef, like the baritone F-clef on the third line, to which it is exactly equivalent. Because of this equivalency, it was rarely used in the past; the baritone F-clef was used instead. The mezzo-soprano clef† When the C-clef is placed on the second line of the staff, it is called the mezzo-soprano clef. This clef is no longer used. Formerly, it was used in vocal music to write mezzo-soprano parts. The soprano clef† When the C-clef occurs on the first line of the staff, it is called the soprano clef. This clef is no longer used. Formerly, it was used in vocal music to write soprano parts. The soprano trombone uses this clef too.

Although this trombone is seldom used today, some works of J.S. Bach call for it. Other clefs Octave clefs Three types of suboctave treble clef showing middle C Starting in the 18th Century treble clef has been used for transposing instruments that sound an octave lower, such as the cello, guitar and especially the tenor voice. To avoid ambiguity modified clefs are sometimes used, especially in the context of choral writing; of those shown the C clef on the third space, easily confused with the tenor clef, is the rarest. This is most often found in tenor parts in SATB settings, in which a treble clef is written with an eight below it, indicating that the pitches sound an octave below the written value. As the true tenor clef has generally fallen into disuse in vocal writings, this "octave-dropped" treble clef is often called the tenor clef. The same clef is sometimes used for the baritone horn. In some scores, the same concept is construed by using a double clef -- two G-clefs overlapping one another.

At the other end of the spectrum, treble clefs with an 8 positioned above the clef is often used in piccolo, penny whistle, soprano recorder, and other high woodwind parts and is sometimes known (informally) as the "sopranino clef". The F clef can also be notated with an octave marker. The F clef notated an octave down is sometimes used for contrabass instruments such as the double bass and contrabassoon and, as the traditional subbass clef has fallen into disuse, that term is sometimes[citation needed] used to describe this clef. The F clef notated an octave up is used for bass recorder and sometimes, though seldom, used for countertenor parts and called the countertenor clef, as it is easy for a bass or baritone to read while singing the part in falsetto. However, both of these are extremely rare (and in fact the countertenor clef is largely intended to be humorous as with the works of P.D.Q. Bach).

The unmodified bass clef is so common that performers of instruments and voice parts whose ranges lie below the staff simply learn the number of ledger lines for each note through common use, and if a line's true notes lie significantly above the bass clef the composer or publisher will often simply write the part in either the true treble clef or notated an octave down. Neutral clef The neutral or percussion clef is not a clef in the same sense that the F, C, and G clefs are. It is simply a convention that indicates that the lines and spaces of the staff are each assigned to a percussion instrument with no precise pitch. With the exception of some common drum-kit and marching percussion layouts, the keying of lines and spaces to instruments is not standardized, so a legend or indications above the staff are necessary to indicate what is to be played. Percussion instruments with identifiable pitches do not use the neutral clef, and timpani (notated in bass clef) and mallet percussion (noted in treble clef or on a grand staff) are usually notated on different staves than unpitched percussion. Staves with a neutral clef do not always have five lines.

Commonly, percussion staves only have one line, although other configurations can be used. The neutral clef is sometimes used when non-percussion instruments play non-pitched extended techniques, such as hitting the body of a violin, violoncello or acoustic guitar, or when a vocal choir is instructed to clap, stomp, or snap, but more often the rhythms are written with X marks in the instrument's normal staff with a note placed above as to the appropriate rhythmic action. Tablature For guitars and other plucked instruments, it is possible to notate tablature in place of ordinary notes. In this case, a TAB-sign is often written instead of a clef. The number of lines of the staff is not necessarily five: one line is used for each string of the instrument (so, for standard six-stringed guitars, six lines would be used, four lines for the traditional bass guitar). Numbers on the lines show on which fret the string should be played. This Tab-sign, like the Percussion clef, is not a clef in the true sense, but rather a symbol employed instead of a clef. History The clefs developed at the same time as the staff, in the 10th century.

Originally, instead of a special clef symbol, the reference line of the staff was simply labeled with the name of the note it was intended to bear: G, F, or C. These were the 'clefs' used for Gregorian chant. Over time, the shapes of these letters became stylized; eventually resulting in the shapes we have today. Two other clefs have been used as well, the D-clef and the Gamma-clef, indicating the notes now represented by the fourth line of the treble clef[citation needed] and the first line of the bass clef, respectively; but these fell out of use. Several variant shapes of the different clefs persisted until very recent times. The F-clef was, until very recently, written like this: . The C-clef was formerly written in a more angular way than now, and many people still use this, or a further simplified K-shape, when writing the clef by hand. The flourish at the top of the G-clef probably derives from a cursive S for "sol", the name for "G" in solfege.[3].

In other words, the reason that the G-clef looks the way it does is likely that it is a drawing of a very fancy letter S, pointing to the position of the "sol" (which is a G note) in the "do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do". Vocal music can be contracted into two staves, using the treble and bass clefs C-clefs were formerly used to notate vocal music, a practice that dwindled away during the late 19th century. The soprano voice was written in 1st line C clef (soprano clef), the alto voice in 3rd line C clef (alto clef), the tenor voice in 4th line C clef (tenor clef) and the bass voice in 4th line F clef (bass clef).

In more modern publications, four part harmony on parallel staves is usually written more simply as: Soprano = treble clef (2nd line G clef) Alto = treble clef Tenor = treble clef with an "8" below or a double treble clef Bass = bass clef (4th F clef) Alternatively, this is reduced to two staves, the soprano/alto staff with a treble clef, and tenor/bass staff marked with the bass clef. Further uses One more use of the clefs is training in sight reading: the ability to read in any clef is useful for being able to transpose on sight (see sight transposition), although in that case the tessitura implied by the given clef must be ignored. It is then only necessary to use seven clefs, so that any written note can take any of the seven different names (A, B, C, D, E, F, G).

Students in French and Belgian conservatories and music schools, amongst others, are thoroughly drilled in this kind of exercise and solfeggios meant for use in those institutions are about the only scores where one will find nowadays a 1st line or 2nd line C clef or a 3rd line F clef. For some reason, the 3rd line F clef (the baritone clef) is preferred in the French and Belgian pedagogical tradition to the equivalent 5th line C clef. This may have something to do with the fact that very early medieval scores had only 4 line staffs, hence possibly the avoidance in some particularly traditionalist circles to write a clef on the 5th line, though this is arguably more likely due to the visual impact of the fact that the 3rd line F clef is contained entirely within the staff whilst half of the 5th line C clef protrudes above it. I hope it helps u understand more thank u =) Staff Paper - All About Music Theory.com Staff Paper Staff Paper Free Staff Paper Free staff paper in various styles is available at the bottom of the page for your personal use.

Get Staff Paper Rather than painstakingly draw the lines of a staff by ourselves every time we want to write some music, we can find paper with pre-drawn staves, called staff paper, or manuscript paper. Manuscript paper comes in all shapes and forms, including loose leaf, notebook, music pads, and many others, with varying amounts of staves per page. Another option for obtaining staff paper is to use a software notation program, which is capable of printing out almost any type of music paper that one may desire. When selecting manuscript paper, there can be an overwhelming number of possible variations and formats to choose from. Once you understand your options, choosing the right music paper will become much easier. Staff Size In the first lesson of the section, we learned about the musical staff and how it works. One thing we didn’t discuss yet is the size of the staff, and that’s because it can vary depending on the music. Staff size is usually measured in millimeters, specifically the distance between two adjacent lines on the staff (or one stave space). Size can vary from about 3.5mm to 9 mm. A good standard staff size is from around 6 mm to 7.5 mm.

Small staves are used for full scores, where many staves have to fit onto a single page. Large sizes like 8 mm and up are often used for educational purposes, such as beginner’s piano books. Important note: Staff size doesn’t just affect the staff itself; the size of all musical symbols is determined in relation to the staff size. For example, when a large staff size is used, the size of the notes, rests, text, and all other musical symbols is also increased. Therefore, choosing the right size is very important. Paper Size The size of staff paper can vary greatly depending on one’s purposes. For simple theory exercises or to jot down musical ideas, a notebook or music pad could be just the thing. Standard paper sizes like letter or A4 are good for many purposes, including lead sheets and all-purpose music needs. Letter is usually used in America and Canada (and other places as well), and A4 is widely used across the rest of the world. For full scores, including orchestral music or big band, the most standard paper size is 11 x 17.

Score parts (for each instrument in the orchestra) are often done on 9.5 x 12.5 paper (some prefer a little larger or smaller). This fairly large size allows the music to be easy to read, and fits more music per page, which reduces page-turning in the middle of a performance or recording. Unfortunately, most regular printers made for home use won’t print out such large paper. In order to print proper-sized scores and parts, one could invest in a wide format printer, or else have the printing done elsewhere (or print at home and enlarge at a local printing shop). Number of Staves Per Page Another factor to consider is how many staves there are on each page. The more staves there are, the more cramped everything is, so it very much depends on what you want to use it for. When working with lots of ledger lines, fewer staves per page is probably a better choice. When writing a score with multiple instruments, obviously we have to make sure there are enough staves to cover all the instruments/instrument groups in the score. In this case, too many staves is a much better situation than too few!

Some staff paper even comes with the exact instrumentation already pre-drawn, including instrument names. This can be a time-saving solution, but it only works if we know exactly what we want ahead of time. To Bar, Or Not To Bar, That Is The Question There’s often an option to choose staff paper either with pre-drawn bar lines or without. Pre-drawn bar lines save you the work in having to space the page, figure out where the bar lines go, and draw them yourself. When using pre-drawn bar lines, it’s important to make sure you’re okay with the number of bars used per page. Usually it will be a standard number like four per line in order to accomodate most situations. Still, this won’t work with all music (e.g. if there are many notes per bar, irregular time signatures, etc.). In those cases (or if you’re not sure), it’s better to use paper without bar lines, and put them in on your own: Paper Type The more important the musical situation, the higher-quality paper it deserves. The two most important factors are color and thickness. Good color choices include off-white, cream, or light green/tan (as opposed to white paper which is harder on the eyes).

Matte is a better choice than gloss, as well. Flimsy paper will bend and billow all over the place, so that’s a bad choice for any serious music, especially live performance or studio use. 32 lb. paper is certainly an improvement over regular 20 lb. computer paper. Some prefer even thicker paper, like 67 lb. There are even more possibilities available, such as pre-drawn clefs and time signatures, extra-wide spacing, and more. There are a huge number of possible configurations. With experience, it becomes easier to decide on the best staff paper for any given situation. Free Staff Paper

Question: Who many lines are there on a single, standard musical staff or stave?
Answer: FIVE