7th grade basic notation

The Staff
The music staff (or music stave as it is also called) is the

series of 5 lines and 4 spaces that music is written down
on. Music notation developed from one single line, used in
the early days of writing down church chants. The first
person to come up with the idea of writing music down on
a line was Guido of Arezzo who was a Benedictine monk
and singing teacher who became famous across North Italy
for the speed at which he managed to teach students to
sing chants. He also invented the doh-re-me system,
although it was called ut-re-me when he first developed it.
The terms music staff and music stave are
interchangeable. Staff tends to be the American usage
and Stave tends to be the British usage. I shall use staff on
this site.
Here is a picture of the staff showing the lines and spaces
Position of the notes on the music staff

The position of notes on the lines or in the spaces
determines the pitch of the note. Pitch is how high or low
a note is. The scientific word for what musicians
call pitch is frequency. The higher the note on the staff, the
higher the pitch of the sound.
It doesn't matter which clef is used, this rule is always the

same.
If the notes are higher on the staff, they are higher in
pitch. If the notes are lower on the staff, they are lower in
pitch.
Notes can be on a line or in a space. When a note is on a
line the staff line runs through the middle of the note.
When a note is in a space it sits between the staff lines. In
both of the examples above the first and last notes are on
lines, the middle notes are in spaces.
When two staves are joined together the Grand Staff is
made. I will use the Grand Staff as a teaching tool on this
site. You may think you only need to learn the Treble (G)
or Bass (F) clef for your particular instrument, but you will
learn much faster and have a more complete knowledge of
music theory if you learn to read music using the Grand
Clefs for Music Notation
A clef is a musical symbol placed at the beginning of a

staff to indicate the pitch of the notes on the staff. “Clef” is
the French word for “key”. Clefs first started appearing in
music scores in the late 1500’s as letters placed precisely
on a specific staff line to identify letter-named pitches,
which provided a “key” to their identity.
In modern music, there are three main clef designs /

shapes we use for pitched music, plus some ancillary clefs
used for percussion instruments, tablature and so forth.
Clefs have proven to be an effective way of dealing with

the extreme ranges represented by all of the instruments
in use today. The modern pitched staff is only five lines, so
using different clefs assigned to different registers allows
us to present each staff in a much more readable way for
each specific instrument’s tessitura.
The pitched clefs in common use today are the treble clef,
the bass clef and the C-clef. The treble clef is also known
as the G-clef; the curl of the treble clef highlights a
reference line for the note G above middle C (the current
clef shape has evolved from the letter G). The bass clef is
also known as the F-clef, because the note F below middle
C passes between the two dots of the bass clef shape (this
clef was originally the letter F).
The clefs assign a specific reference note to the line on

which they are placed. The other lines and spaces are read
in relation to this reference line.
The alto clef and the tenor clef are actually the same clef
design, set at different locations on the staff to represent
the location for middle C; this clef is referred to as the C-
clef or the movable C-clef. For alto clef, the C-clef sits on
the third line of the staff, indicating the location of middle
C. For tenor clef, the C-clef sites on the fourth line of the
staff, indicating middle C (for a total of four standard
pitched clefs in common use).
Historically, the movable C-clef could appear on any of the

five staff lines indicating the position of middle C; however,
the alto and tenor clefs are the only movable C-clefs in
common use today.

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The Staff

The music staff (or music stave as it is also called) is the

Position of the notes on the music staff

It doesn't matter which clef is used, this rule is always the

Clefs for Music Notation

A clef is a musical symbol placed at the beginning of a

In modern music, there are three main clef designs /

Clefs have proven to be an effective way of dealing with

The clefs assign a specific reference note to the line on

Historically, the movable C-clef could appear on any of the

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