You will notice that if you play an “A” on the keyboard, it will sound “friendly” when played simultaneously with another “A’ an octave higher or lower, and it will, in fact, be “friendly” with any number of “A’s”(the same is true for any other notes that share a name) played together on the keyboard. We will fully define what an octave is at a later time.įor now we will describe it as the distance between one note to the next one of the same name- either up or down on the keyboard or staff. Since we are pointing out the fact that several notes on the keyboard and musical staff share the same name (though not designated the same number), it is a good time to introduce the term “octave”. With this use of numbers to accompany the letter names we know exactly where A3 will be located on the keyboard and on the Grand Staff, and we therefore know the exact pitch it will sound. Notice that because the musical alphabet repeats itself over and over, it is helpful to assign numbers to each complete set of letters, allowing us, for instance, to distinguish a lower “A’ from a higher “A”. (or sung by a voice or sounded on another instrument). The illustration above shows the location of “Middle C” and can therefore be used to identify what lines and spaces represent particular pitches played on the piano. Just as with the Grand Staff, the musical alphabet runs A through G and then repeats over and over again in sequence from left to right using the white keys of a piano key board. We will use the piano keyboard as a reference point to identify the actual pitches that go along with the notes names assigned by the notes positions on the Grand Staff. The diagram below illustrates the naming of the lines and places of the Grand Staff. Notes placed on these lines or within these spaces are given the corresponding names. The space just of the “B” line is called “C” space and so on. With this in mind, the line just above the “A” space in the treble clef is named the “B” line. The space just above it would the “A” line (because the “G” is the final letter in the musical alphabet and after it, the alphabet simply repeats over and over again). When determining the names of the lines and spaces of the Grand Staff, we must simply use the sequence of the musical alphabet and apply to the lines and spaces of the musical staff.įor instance, because we know that the second from bottom line in the treble clef is designated as the “G” line. In choral writting (such as in hymnals) the treble staff is used for women (sopranos and altos), while the bass staff is used for men (tenor and bass).ĭETERMINING THE NAMES OF THE LINES AND SPACES In the case of piano music, the treble clef staff is generally used for the right hand, and the bass clef staff is used for the left. Therefore, a note placed on this line would be named “F”. The top curl of the bass clef symbol designates the second line from the top of the bottom staff as the “F” line. The bottom staff is designated as the “bass” by the use of the bass (or “F”) clef symbol. Treble Clef symbol (left)/ Bass Clef symbol (right) Therefore, a note placed on this line would be named “G”. The curl on the symbols right side circles the second line from the bottom of the top staff- designating it as the “G” line. The top staff is designated as the “treble” by the use of the treble (or G) clef symbol. The top and bottom staves have five lines (and four spaces between lines) each. The upper staff is used for the treble clef (upper voices), and the lower staff is used for the bass clef (lower voices). The Grand Staff is actually two separate staves joined by a brace on the left hand side. This is the staff used for things such as piano parts and four-part choral writing. In this discussion, we will be using what is known as the “Grand Staff,” which allows the full spectrum of musical pitches to be seen. Rather than writing the letter names out for each note in sheet music, we know their names by where they are placed on something called the musical staff. Unlike the actual English alphabet, the musical alphabet has only seven letters that repeat over and over in sequence. We use letters to help us assign names to particular musical pitches. For this article, we will focus our discussion on how we notate pitch (how high or low notes sound) in sheet music.
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