(TMS) The Musical Staff/Clefs

The Musical Staff and Clefs

The Musical Staff

The staff is the foundation upon which notes are drawn.

Labeled Staff, 5 lines and 4 spaces

The modern staff comprises five lines and four spaces.

red space on the staff represents red key on the keyboard

Every line or space on the staff represents a white key on the keyboard.

Treble Clef and Bass Clef

Clefs assign individual notes to certain lines or spaces.

Treble Clef and Bass Clef

Two clefs are normally used: The Treble and Bass clefs.

Treble Clef

First, we will discuss the Treble Clef (also called the G Clef).

The red staff line represents the G.

The staff line which the clef wraps around (shown in red) is known as G. Any note placed on this line becomes G.

The note on the space above G is A.

The note on the space above G is A. The musical alphabet consists of seven notes (A,B,C,D,E,F and G). Remember, there is not an ''H'' note.

01_GAB.png

 

The note on the line above A is B.

Labeled Notes

This process continues.

Labeled Notes on the staff

Uh-oh. We just ran out of room to place notes, what happens now? Ledger Lines will solve our dilemma.

Ledger Line on the staff

A ledger line is a small line that extends the staff when we run out of room.

Ledger Line A note

With the ledger line drawn, we can place the A.

Bass Clef

Next, let's discuss the Bass Clef (also called the F Clef).

F note on the bass clef

The staff line in between the two dots of the clef is F.

01_StaffwithNotes.png

We can now fill the rest of the staff with notes.

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