The main content of this lesson involves the Music Staff.

Lesson content

In this lesson you will learn:

 1. The Music Staff

The notes are written on the Music Staff. 

 The staff has 5 lines and 4 spaces. 

Lines and Spaces

The music staff, also known as a stave, is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that represent different pitches in music notation. The staff is the foundation for notating and reading musical notes, providing a visual guide for musicians to interpret the notes that they need to play.

The music staff is where you draw the music notes. The standard staff has five lines and four spaces, and each line and space represents a different pitch.

How you read the staff depends on the clef that is drawn at the beginning. Since this course focuses on the treble clef, you will learn the notes that are represented on the lines and spaces in this clef.

The notes on the lines and spaces in the Treble Clef

Each line and space on the staff corresponds to a specific note. Starting from the bottom, the lines and spaces represent the following notes in ascending order:

Lines: E, G, B, D, F.

Spaces: F, A, C, E.

You should memorize this to read notes on the treble clef, which is commonly used for higher-pitched instruments and voices. We’ll focus on the treble clef in the next lesson.

Practice 1

The Staff?

Look at the numbers of the lines and the spaces of the music staff.

The Staff has 4 spaces.

The Staff has 5 lines.

2. Measures and Bar Lines

Measures, also known as bars, are segments of time in music defined by a given number of beats, over which notes, rests, and other musical elements are placed. The beginning and end of each measure are indicated by vertical lines called bar lines. The time signature of the song determines how many beats are in each measure and which note value is equivalent to one beat. The bar line divides each measure.

Bar lines are vertical lines that cross the staff and divide the music into measures (or bars).

Practice 1

Measures and Bar Lines?

Look at the Staff and locate the treble clef, the measure, the bar line and the final bar line.

3. The Clef

 The clef tells you how to read notes on the music staff. There are a few different clefs.

 The treble clef tells us that the note G is on the second line on the music staff.

The bass clef tells us that the note F is on the fourth line on the music staff.

The tenor clef or C clef on the fourth line tells us that the note C is on the fourth line on the music staff.

The alto clef or C clef on the third line tells us that the note C is on the third line on the music staff.

Understanding the music staff is fundamental for musicians, as it provides a visual representation of musical pitches and rhythms.

In addition to the treble and bass clefs, other clefs like the alto and tenor clefs utilize the staff in different configurations to represent specific ranges of pitches. These variations allow composers to notate music for a wide range of instruments and vocal ranges.

The Treble Clef and the notes on the staff

For now, we will focus on the treble clef and how do you writes notes on the staff in the treble clef.

The treble clef, also known as the G clef, spirals around the second line from the bottom of the staff. This line represents the pitch “G” above middle C (one of the central notes on the piano).

In the next lesson, we will explore the notes in the treble clef.

Interactive Animation

Below you can use the buttons to view the interactive animation about the Staff.

Glossary

You can see below the main concepts of this lesson and their definitions. Then you can take a quiz about this lesson.

Exercise