Music Notation

There is a system for writing the twelve pitches. This system is called music notation. In music notation there are five lines, called the staff, and on the left end of the staff there will always be a clef. Each line on the staff and each space between the lines represent a different pitch. Which pitch these lines and spaces represent depend on the clef. There are two main clefs: Treble Clef and Bass Clef.

The Trebble and Bass Clefs are often used together creating a Grand Staff. They will be connected by a line and brackets.

A ledger line is something used in order to extend the range of the staff. Ledger lines are put above or below the staff. There can be as many as neccessay. They are spaced the same as one line on the staff is from another.

Middle C is in the center of the keyboard. It is one ledger line below the Trebble Staff and one ledger line above the Bass Staff.

Pitches are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F, and G) leaving five tones in the octave unnamed. These five tones will still be named after one of these letters, but will have a symbol called an accidental following the letter. These two accidentals alter the tones entirely. They are the sharp (#) and the flat (b). The sharp raises a note one semi-tone (a semi-tone is 1/12 of an octave, up or down one key on the keyboard) and the flat lowers a tone one semi-tone.

Here are the twelve notes laid out on the keyboard. As you see on the black keys the same tone has two names. This is an example of an enharmonic, or different spellings of the same tone.