The staff is a grid, five lines and four spaces, upon which musical pitches and rhythms are written. Notes of different rhythmic values are placed either on a line or in a space. Notes above or below the staff use ledger lines, discussed below.
Clefs are musical symbols that give a reference point for pitch on the staff. The treble, or G clef, curves around the second line up from the bottom. This second line up is the note G. The bass, or F clef, features a curve and two dots centered on the second line down from the top. This second line down is the note F.
The C clef is movable and wherever the curly braces converge indicates middle C. Alto and tenor are the most common C clefs. Alto clef centers on the middle line and tenor clef centers on the 2nd line down from the top.
There are other clefs used in music but these four clefs are the most common, treble and bass being the most common of all. With clefs serving as a reference, all pitches on the staff can now be deciphered.
Clefs originated from hand-drawn letters which were used to label the name of a note on a particular stave line. The stylised shapes of modern clefs represent these letters e.g., G for treble, F for bass.
The grand staff is a combination of a treble staff placed above a bass staff. These two staves are joined by a curly brace. The grand staff is the standard way piano music is notated. In general, the right hand plays music in the treble clef and the left hand plays music in the bass clef.
Musical pitches are named according to a seven-letter alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. As you ascend in pitch, you ascend in the alphabet and the letter names simply repeat. For example, when you reach G, the last letter in the musical alphabet, the next note up is A. We can determine any note names on the staff based on the reference provided by each clef. Since the treble clef is a G clef and the bass clef is an F clef, we can count up or down in the musical alphabet to determine the name of any pitch. The letters alternate spaces and lines on the staff. For example, on a treble staff, the second line up is a G. The next note up, which is the second space up, is an A. The third line up is a B and so on.
To speed up note recognition, it is helpful to memorize the note names associated with all the lines and spaces in all the clefs. Starting from the bottom of the treble clef, the lines are: E, G, B, D, F, and the spaces are: F, A, C, E. Starting on the bottom of the bass clef, the lines are: G, B, D, F, A, and the spaces are: A, C, E, G.
Notes above or below a staff use ledger lines; these lines are a continuation of the staff grid. One ledger line below the treble staff and one ledger line above the bass staff is middle C, so named because it is located between the treble and bass staves and approximately in the center of a standard piano keyboard. The notes that exist at the upper and lower extremes of the piano keyboard may require several ledger lines.
Because the musical alphabet consists of only seven letters, the names of pitches will repeat. A pitch class is any instance of the same pitch. For example, the low F and high F belong to the same pitch class, regardless of their register (i.e., how high or low the pitch is written).
The musical keyboard, found on a piano, organ, etc., is an indispensable tool for visualizing pitches and their relationship to each other. Notice that the white keys are the standard alphabet letters and the black keys represent the raised, sharp (#), and lowered, flat (b), letters. These sharps and flats (i.e., accidentals) are discussed below. It is important to memorize the note names on the staff and the keyboard. Both are essential for working effectively in music theory.
The notes in the treble staff are the same as those in the bass. The ledger lines indicate the continuation of the staff lines outside the standard five lines of the staff.
In equal temperament, the smallest distance between two notes is a half step, also known as a semitone, the distance between two adjacent pitches on the keyboard (e.g., B to C). Two semitones is a whole step (e.g., C to D or D to E).
Interact with the keyboard and staff notes by hovering & clicking
Sharps (#), flats (b), and naturals (n) are called accidentals. Sharps raise a pitch by one half step, flats lower a pitch by one half step, and naturals cancel a previous accidental. From C, a white key, to C# (or Db), a black key, is one half step. From Ab, a black key, to Bb, another black key, is a whole step (i.e., two half steps). The double sharp (##) raises a pitch by two half steps and a double flat (bb) lowers a pitch by two half steps.
The notes marked by brackets in the second example are called enharmonic equivalents, this means that they sound the same but are spelled differently. Spelling is important for harmonic reasons which will be explored later.
When C is raised by two half steps it is written as C##. Similarly, Bbb is B lowered by two half steps and sounds the same as the pitch A.
Click a key on the keyboard to see where it appears on the staff. Use the accidental buttons to input chromatic pitches, or switch between Treble, Bass, Alto, and Tenor clefs.
Test your knowledge on this chapter’s material before moving on.