The Staff & Clefs
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C D m Em F G A m B dim w w & w w w w w w w 1Mwajor 2mwinor 3mwinor 4Mwajor 5Major 6minor 7diminished wI ii iii IV V vi vii C m D dim Eb F m GGm Ab B dim Bb w ( œ ) bw w ( œ ) & w bw bw bw nw bœ b w nw bœ 1mbwinor 2 diminishedw b3Mwajor 4mwinor 5Major 5minor 6Major 7diminished 7Major wi ii III iv V v VI vii I N/H/M N/H M N H/M N/H M N H/M N/H M N H/M ( ) ( ) w ( ) ( œ ) w bw ( b œ ) œ w & w bw (N œ ) bw Nœ bw Nœ bœ Nw b w N œ bœ Nw 1mbwinor 2 diminishedw 2mœinor b3Mwajor 3Ab ugmentedœ 4minor 4Major 5minor 5Major 6Major 6 diminished 7 Major 7diminished Thei Staffii &ii ClefsIII III+ iv IV v V VI vi VII vii C m D dim D m Eb Eaug F m F G m G Ab A dim Bb B dim MUSIC STAFF In standard Western musical notation, the staff, or stave, is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch (or, in the case of a percussion staff, & ∑ different percussion instruments∑ are represented by ∑each line or space). ∑ From the earliest of times, songs were passed from one generation to another by oral tradition but when Christianity began to explode across Europe and Asia Minor in the 4th Century the monks of the Catholic Church desired to teach the chants—the songs of the early church, to each other and to their congregations. They developed a practice of holding up their left hand with fingers spread wide and starting with the little finger representing the lowest pitch and the thumb as the highest pitch, they used the right hand to point to the fingers and the space between fingers, and were able to teach chants and scripture set to music in this way. & ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ It was Guido d’Arezzo, an Italian Benedictine monk who around 1025 invented modern musical notation by developing a written musical staff. His four-line staff is still used (though without the red and yellow coloring he recommended) in Gregorian chant publications today. Five-line staves appeared in Italy in the 13th century. This arrangement of five lines and four spaces that is known as our modern musical staff is a direct derivation of the 5 finger and 4 space teaching method common to his day. He also gave pitch names to the notes that appeared on each line and space of the staff and which we still use today: Do, Re, Mi, Fa So, La, Ti, Do. Guido named his lines and spaces “the staff” because he proposed that the musical staff was a guide in the same way& the staff of ∑God, the Good Shepherd, is ∑a guide for His people. ∑ ∑ So to review: The Musical Staff is an arrangement of five lines and four spaces upon which musical notation is written. Historically, it is a representation of the human hand that was used to teach the melody of early church chants and songs. Guido d’Arezzo is credited as being the inventor of this modern musical notation around 1025 in Italy, and for drawing and giving purpose to the musical staff. PITCHES The different pitches which Guido d’Arezzo named, we refer to by ascending alphabetical names: A B C D E F G and above those notes, at twice their pitch or frequency, this sequence repeats: A B C D E F G A B C D E F G... from low pitch to high. CLEFS A clef, which is originally a French word meaning “key”, is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Centered on one of the lines at the beginning of a staff, it indicates the name and pitch of the note on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the stave may be determined. Clefs were developed at the same time in history as the musical staff was which was sometime in the early 10th century. The look of the clefs has changed over the years. But with the inventing of the printing press and the consistency required for printing reproduction then a standard look was achieved. There are three primary types of clef used in modern music notation: G clef, F clef, and various C clefs. Each type of clef assigns a different reference note to the line on which it is placed. The G CLEF also known as TREBLE CLEF, and the F CLEF also known as BASS CLEF are used in the vast majority of modern music. TREBLE CLEF BASS CLEF Notice that the main circle of the G or Treble Clef Notice that the two dotes of the F or Bass Clef are centers around the G line of the staff. Thus, the reason above and below the F line of the staff. Thus, the reason that it is also called the G Clef. that&& it is balsoœ callednœ #theœ F Clef. ? #Fœ ‹œ & G & The original forms of these clefs evolved from the letter names& being handwritten over the line which corresponded to the note (as shown by the G and F written on the staves above– bnoteœ the∫ similarities).œ As you learn to identify notes? on the staff, you can remember that the Clef always givesB& you a reference pitch. There are various forms of C Clefs, but they each have a central? ‘arrow’ which points to a line designated as a note commonly& called Middle C. (Middle C is a recognizable central pitch on a piano and is an average pitch between male and female vocal ranges.) & ‹œ ∫œ B B ALTO? CLEF or VIOLA CLEF TENOR CLEF Violas? and a few other instruments commonly use this AnotherB 2 variation of a C Clef is sometimes used by clef, but it is also sometimes used by Alto vocalists. Tenor&4 Vocalists.bEœ Eœ EEœ bœ B ÷ b b b B B B& bœ nœ #œ & w PERCUSSION÷ CLEF or NEUTRAL CLEFS w w PercussionistsB& #œ and‹ œnon-pitched instruments use a clef which&? indicateswEG thatw linesBD and spaces doF not correspond to pitches, but rather each line or space is available to contain ÷the rhythm for an separate instrument. w bœ ∫œ w w ÷&& wEGw BDF w ww ÷ &ã wFAw w CEw & wEGw BDF THE& GRAND‹œ STAFF∫œ The Grand Staff is used for instrumentsww capable of producing? a wide# rangeœ ofb œnotes (piano, organ, harp, marimba). This& combinationw of wa Treblewwand Bassw Clef staves is joined by a Brace ({) to the left of the staves,w indicating that the staves& applywEGFA2 tow the samewBD CEinstrument.F The pitch Middle C mentioned? earlier wouldw bew centeredw between the two staves,&4 andwEG it can be writtenBD on an imaginaryF (ledger) line just belowGB the wupper DFstaffw OR just aboveA the lower staff. bEœb Eœb EEœ bœb & wFAw CE w & nœ ?& ww w w & GBFAww DFwCEA ? w ww & wFAw CE ? w w 4wACw w EG œ ? &4wGBœ bœ DFœ A GGb Gb bEœb Eœb EEœ bœb E ? ww (Middle C) A? single verticalw line drawnw wto the leftw of multiple staves creates a System, indicating that the music on all the œ staves iswAC to be playedw wsimultaneously.EG A Bracket is an additional vertical line joining staves, to show groupings œ œ wGBw DFA ? w œ œ œ of instrumentsã w that function as a unit, such as the string section of an orchestra.w Vocalw arrangements for SATB œ œ œ œ choir are also similarly displayed with a Bracket ([), with women’swAC vocal parts& writtenEG on the Trebleœ Staffœ and œ œ men’s vocal parts written on the (MiddleBass Staff. C) œABœ œCDEFGABCDEFGABC ?? #œ bœ w œ œ œ œ (Middle C) ? w w œ œ (Middleœ C) wACw & EG œ œ œ œ œ œ wACEGœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œABœ CDEFGABC&?DEFGABC œ œ œ œ œ (Middle œC) œ œ nœ (Middle C) ABCDœ œCDEFœ EFGAGABCBCDEDEFGFGABABCDCE & (Middle C) œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ (Middle C) ? œ œ œ œ œ œ œ 4 & œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ &4 œ bœ œ œABœ œCDœ œEFœ GABCDEFGABC œ œ œ GG G œABCDbEœ œ Eœ œCDEFEEœ bœ EFGAE GABCBCDE?DEFGFGABABCDCE œ œ œ b b b b b (Middle C) œ œ œ (Middleœ œC) œ œCDœ œEFGABCDEFGABCDE œ œ œ œ œ ? œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ CDœ œEFœ œGAœ BCDEFGABCDE œCDœ œEFGABCDEFGABCDE & ? B B ÷ w w w & wEGw BDF w w & wFAw CE Identifying Notes LEDGER? LINESw w w GBw DFA In the wexample below you will see the note names for both the Treble and Bass Clefs. You will also see that notes are extended above and below the staff… (continuing the ascending pattern of A-B-C-D-E-F-G or descending pattern of G-F-E-D-C-B-A). This added single-note line is called a LEDGER LINE and it is simply a method of? extending the rangew of thew staff with added lines and spaces. You will also see a note on BOTH staves labeled MIDDLEwAC C. Thisw is EGthe recognizable C located at the center of a piano, and either staff can represent this same pitch, but you can see this means most of the notes on the Bass Staff are lower in pitch than Treble Staff notes.