Reading and notation

The staff (or stave) is the grid that makes pitch visible. Each line and each space is one note name, and they alternate: line, space, line, space, going up by one name each time.

By itself the staff does not say which notes. A clef at the left end fixes that, which is why every staff starts with one.

Notes too high or too low to fit get short extra lines of their own, called ledger lines. Middle C sits on one just below a treble staff.

Keyboard music is normally written on two staves braced together — treble for the right hand, bass for the left — called a grand staff.

Five lines on their own are ambiguous: they show that one note is higher than another, not how high either is. The clef resolves that by nailing one specific line to one specific pitch. Everything else follows from it.

The two you meet first are the treble clef and the bass clef. They exist so that music sitting high and music sitting low can both be written near the middle of a staff, instead of stranded on piles of ledger lines.

A clef applies until another one replaces it — which does happen mid-piece, especially in keyboard music where a hand crosses into the other's range.

Also called the G clef, and the name is the instruction: the spiral in the middle of the symbol curls around one line, and that line is G4 — the G just above middle C.

From that one anchor the rest of the staff follows. Going up from that G line: A in the space above, B on the next line, and so on. Going down: F in the space below, E on the bottom line.

It is used for the right hand at the keyboard, for most singing voices, and for nearly every instrument that plays in the upper range.

Also called the F clef. The two dots are the instruction: they straddle one line, and that line is F3, the F below middle C.

It covers the range below the treble clef. On a keyboard it is normally the left hand; elsewhere it belongs to cellos, basses, trombones and lower voices.

The two clefs overlap in the middle. Middle C is one ledger line below a treble staff and one ledger line above a bass staff — the same note, written two ways, which is exactly why the pair works.

The staff holds eleven pitches — five lines and four spaces, plus one just above and one just below. Music regularly goes further, and ledger lines extend the grid a note at a time.

They are drawn only where a note needs them, and they follow the same alternation as the staff itself: line, space, line.

Middle C is the one everybody meets first — a single ledger line below the treble staff, or a single one above the bass staff. Beyond three or four ledger lines music usually changes clef instead, because counting them stops being quick.

A slur is an instruction about how to play, not how long. Every note under it is sounded; they are simply joined, without the small silence that separates notes by default.

On a keyboard that means holding each note until the next one starts. On a wind instrument it means one breath; on a bowed string, one stroke — which is where the marking comes from.

It is drawn identically to a tie, and the pitches are what tell them apart: same note, one sound; different notes, play both. A slur also often marks a phrase, which is why it is sometimes called a phrase mark.

The keyboard has twelve keys to an octave and music has seven letter names, so most keys answer to more than one name. F♯ and G♭ are the same sound; so are A♯ and B♭, and D♯ and E♭.

They are not interchangeable. Which spelling is correct depends on the key: a scale uses each letter exactly once, so G major needs an F of some kind and takes F♯ — writing G♭ would give it two Gs and no F, and every interval involving that note would be misnamed.

This is why a pitch here is never just a key number. The sound tells you which key to press; the spelling tells you what it means.

The staff has room for seven note names per octave, but an octave contains twelve semitones. Accidentals cover the difference.

There are three in ordinary use: the sharp raises by a semitone, the flat lowers by a semitone, and the natural cancels either one.

An accidental is written before the note but spoken after it — the sign sits to the left of the notehead, and you say "F sharp".

It lasts to the end of the bar, and applies to that line or space only. That is separate from a key signature, which applies for the whole piece.

A sharp moves a note up by one semitone — one key to the right on a keyboard, black or white.

Most sharps land on black keys, and it is tempting to conclude that sharp means black key. It does not. E sharp is F, and B sharp is C, because E–F and B–C already have nothing between them.

F sharp and G flat are the same key played and two different notes written. Which one is correct depends on the key: in G major the note is F sharp, spelled so that the scale uses each letter once. Writing G flat there would put two Gs in the scale and no F, and every interval involving it would be misnamed.

A flat moves a note down by one semitone — one key to the left, black or white.

As with the sharp, flat does not mean black key: F flat is E, and C flat is B.

Flats and sharps are not interchangeable even when they sound identical. B flat and A sharp are one key and two notes; F major contains B flat, never A sharp, because the scale needs a B of some kind and already has an A.

Keys with flats in their key signature — F, B flat, E flat and so on — sit on the other side of the circle of fifths from the sharp keys.

A natural undoes an accidental. It restores the plain note: not sharp, not flat.

It has two jobs. It cancels an accidental earlier in the same bar, and it cancels one that the key signature applies to the whole piece — in G major, where every F is sharp, an F natural is written when a plain F is wanted.

On a keyboard a natural is nearly always a white key. Nearly, not always: it is only true because the seven plain note names happen to be the white ones.

Writing an accidental on every F in a piece full of F sharps would be exhausting to read and to write. The key signature says it once: these letters are sharp (or flat) throughout.

It is printed straight after the clef on every line, and the signs appear in a fixed order — sharps F, C, G, D, A, E, B; flats the same order backwards.

A key signature identifies the key, though not uniquely: one signature serves a major key and its relative minor. One sharp means G major or E minor, and only the music tells you which.

A natural is how a piece steps outside its own key signature for a note.