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Introduction To The Staff | How To Read Notes On The Staff

All musical notation is written on a collection of lines and spaces called a staff.

Staff.png

Each of the five lines and four spaces represents a note with a different letter name depending upon which clef is found at the beginning of the staff.

StaffLINES.png
StaffSPACES.png

The two most commonly used clefs are the treble clef and the bass clef.

TrebleClef.png
BassClef.png

As its name would suggest the treble clef is home to notes of higher pitch frequencies than the bass clef. Therefore, when combining is clef into a grand staff the treble clef would be placed on the staff above the bass clef.

GrandStaff.png

Another way to think about it is that the treble clef contains notes which are above middle C, and the bass clef contains notes which are below middle C. Here’s middle C.