The Stave

The stave (or “staff”) in music is a set of five lines that music is written on:

The notes are then added on the lines and in the spaces:

The higher the pitch of the note, the higher up on the stave it is written. Make sense so far? If we want notes higher or lower than the ones on the stave then we simply draw more lines in and add notes to them. These lines are called “ledger lines”.

…but wait…this is only half the story…

…none of this tells us what actual notes these are supposed to be! All the stave is telling us is which notes are higher than others. I mean, you could put that together with the rhythm of the notes and get a vague idea of what’s going on…but it’s not quite the full picture…

We also have something else- a clef (the squiggly line at the start of music)- that tells us which set of notes we’re referring to. So, over the next few weeks I’m going to explain these “Clefs”, how they help us, and how they are used.

Until then, I’ll see you next time.
Rob.

September 30, 2011 at 8:00 am | Music Theory | No comments