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FUNDAMENTALS OF MUSIC: The Staff, Clefs, and Ledger lines.

 






THE STAFF


The Staff is a foundation upon which notes are built in music. IIt consists of five equally spaced horizontal lines. Most of the notes of the music are placed on one of these lines or in a space in between the lines. Extra Ledger line  may be added to show a note that is too high or too low to be in the Staff.

Ledger lines are additional lines or small lines that extends the Staff, either above or below to show notes that are too high or too low.

Vertical Bar lines divide the Staff into short sections called measures or  bars. 
A Double bar line, either heavy or light, is used to Mark the end of larger sections of music, including the very end of a piece, which is marked by a heavy-double bar.



A musical staff remains inactive or meaningless until a clef is added. The lines and spaces on a musical staff should determine the Letter name of the note to be sang or played but without a clef attached to this staff,this can't be done.


LETTER NAMES

    The various pitches in a piece of music are represented by the first seven letters of the English Alphabet. We can see from the diagram below that it runs from letter A to G and then back to A.



THE CLEFS


    A clef is a symbol placed at the beginning of a line of music that establishes the letter names of the lines and spaces. It is the first symbol that appears at the beginning of every music staff. We will be discussing two types of clefs for now: the treble or G clef and the Bass or F clef.

Treble Clef


The Treble Clef, also known as the G clef, tells yo that the second line from the bottom (the line the symbol curls around) is 'G'.

BASS CLEF




The Bass Clef, or F Clef, tells you that the second line from the top (the one bracketed by the symbol's dots) is 'F'.




MEMORIZING THE NOTES IN BASS AND TREBLE CLEFS

Here are some popular Mnemonics used:


TREBLE CLEF LINES






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