The Staff, Clefs and Note Names

Written music is a set of instructions for two things: pitch (which note to play) and time (when to play it). This lesson is about pitch, and it all begins with the staff: five horizontal lines, with four spaces between them, that notes sit on and between.

A note's vertical position sets its pitch: the higher it sits on the staff, the higher it sounds. But five lines cannot cover every note, so each staff starts with a clef that fixes exactly which pitches the lines and spaces stand for.

The treble and bass clefs

The treble clef (also called the G clef, because its curl circles the G line) is used for higher notes, usually played by the right hand.

The bass clef (the F clef, its two dots surrounding the F line) is used for lower notes, usually played by the left hand.

The grand staff

Piano music uses both clefs at once, joined by a brace into a grand staff, so you can read both hands together. The treble staff sits on top, the bass staff below.

The two staves meet at middle C, the C nearest the centre of the keyboard. It floats on a short ledger line between the staves, a little line used to extend the staff for notes that fall outside it.

Only seven note names

Music uses just seven letter names, A B C D E F G, and then they repeat. On the treble staff, the notes sitting on the five lines, from bottom to top, are E, G, B, D, F.

The notes in the four spaces, from bottom to top, spell a handy word: F, A, C, E.

From the page to the keys

Reading music is really just linking those two things: naming a note on the page, and finding it on the keyboard. Here is the whole set of seven names climbing from middle C up to the next C, an octave higher.

Now play those notes yourself. Turn the note names on below and match each key to the letters above. The black keys come in groups of two and three: the white key just to the left of each group of two is always a C, which is your anchor for finding everything else.

Reading music comes down to two joined skills: naming a note on the page, and finding that note under your fingers. Practise the link between them and everything else follows.