Fundamentals
How to Read Sheet Music: Staves, Clefs and Note Names
The staff, the treble and bass clefs, line and space names, ledger lines, and where the key and time signatures sit, with a table to learn from.
Staff
The set of five horizontal lines and four spaces on which pitch is written, read from bottom to top.
Also called: stave, staves
A staff is the set of five horizontal lines and the four spaces between them on which pitch is written. Each line and space stands for one letter name, and a clef placed at the start fixes which letter each line carries. Pitch rises as notes move up the staff and falls as they move down. Notes beyond the five lines are written on ledger lines. Piano and harp music use two staves, a treble staff and a bass staff, joined by a brace into a grand staff. A percussion staff can show unpitched instruments, where the position of a note indicates which drum or cymbal to strike. A full score stacks one staff for each instrument or part.
Related terms
- ClefA symbol at the start of a staff that fixes the pitch of one line, and so the pitch of every other line and space.
- Ledger lineA short extra line above or below the staff, used to write notes that lie beyond the five staff lines.
- Grand staffA treble staff and a bass staff joined by a brace, used for keyboard and harp music.
- TablatureA notation that shows where to place the fingers on a fretted or keyed instrument, rather than the pitch of each note.
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Orchestration
Reading an Orchestral Score: Layout and a Method for First Reads
An orchestral score stacks every part on one page. This covers the standard order of the families, the brackets and clefs, and a first-read method.