| The staff is basically a set of five horizontal lines | | | | lines, which in turn create bars, and within those |
| that appear vertically thus creating four spaces | | | | bars we will add musical notes and suddenly our |
| and on these lines and spaces as they are called, | | | | five horizontal lines have turned in to a music |
| musical notes are written. The lower down the | | | | composition, albeit simple, but music never the |
| notes are written on the staff the lower the pitch | | | | less. |
| and the higher up the higher the pitch. Of course, | | | | The Grand Staff |
| there a little bit more to it than that, so let's go in | | | | This is a bit more complex than the staff and |
| to a bit more detail. | | | | includes two sets of five lines connected together |
| The Staff | | | | with a symbol known as a brace and also includes |
| The staff is a very generic term, and would be | | | | a treble clef on the top set of lines and a bass |
| used in a musical environment such as a music | | | | cleff on the bottom set of lines. Both clefs are |
| teacher and pupil. A more accurate term would | | | | always written on the left hand side of the Grand |
| be musical staff. Of course even this to a | | | | Staff. Again, time signature and bar lines will be |
| non-musical person could mean a companies | | | | added to the Grand Staff and finally musical notes |
| workforce or staff that sing every day (get it, | | | | added to the top set of lines, now known as the |
| staff that are musical). Just to confuse things | | | | treble clef and the bottom set now called the |
| even more the staff is also known as a stave or | | | | bass clef. |
| a musical stave. Depending on where in the world | | | | From this simple canvas or manuscript as it is |
| you learn music will determine which word you | | | | called, music is written for electronic keyboard and |
| use, but they are both correct. (All this for five | | | | piano. The electronic keyboard normally uses the |
| horizontal lines.) | | | | staff (one set of five lines) using the treble clef |
| Make sense of the staff | | | | and you will often see chord symbols above it to |
| The staff on it own is quite unremarkable as you | | | | indicate which chord should be played with the left |
| can probably imagine, just five lines, but it can be | | | | hand. The piano will normally use a Grand Staff. |
| like a canvas for great works of art or simple | | | | The treble clef is used for the right hand and the |
| melodies. To start creating music on these lines | | | | bass clef used for the left hand. |
| we first need to add a clef, which for a single | | | | To get a better understanding of the staff and |
| musical staff is normally a treble clef, a time | | | | the Grand Staff look at a piece of sheet music |
| signature so we know how many beats to the | | | | and you can see what has been added to those |
| bar the music will have. Then we need to add bar | | | | simple five horizontal lines. |