Pitch Notation

The Grand Staff

You need the Beatnik Player to hear the musical examples

When you combine a treble staff and a bass staff, the result is the grand staff. On the grand staff above you will find a treble clef, a bass clef and notes and their names from two ledger lines below the bass staff (low C) to two ledger lines above the treble staff (high C.) Ledger lines are the short extra lines used to write notes above or below the staff.

Two points to remember: 1) the lines of a staff are numbered from the bottom line up. Line 1 on the bass staff is G; line 1 on the treble staff is E; 2) the higher a note's position on a staff, the higher the pitch it represents.

If you have the Beatnik plug-in installed, you can hear the pitches the above notes represent by placing your cursor on or in-between a note and its name. Notice that in the places where notes are written on the bass staff and right above on the treble staff, the sounds for both notes are the same. Because the staffs overlap, many pitches can be represented by notes on either staff. A good example is middle C which can be written one ledger line below the treble staff or one ledger line above the bass staff.

The Keyboard

The graphic above illustrates how the notes are organized on a piano keyboard. Notice the repeating patterns of note names and that each black key has two names. Also note how the black keys are organized into repeating patterns of twos and threes. Can you find the places on the keyboard where there aren't any black keys between the white keys?

Some terms to remember:

Pitch

A musical sound. The highness or lowness of a tone, depending on the frequency (rate of vibration). Here's more on pitch frequencies. (Scroll down to the bottom of that page.)

Note

The written symbol for a musical sound indicating its pitch and duration

Staff

Five parallel lines separated by four spaces. One of the basic symbols of music notation

Clef

A symbol placed at the left end of a staff to determine the relative pitch names and range of the notes on that staff. The treble clef is used for pitches within the range of the female singing voices and the bass clef for a lower group of pitches, within the range of the male singing voice.

Accidentals

Signs used to alter the pitch of a written note. A sharp () before the note indicates the pitch a half step above; a flat () indicates a half step below. A natural sign () cancels a sharp or flat.

Music Notation