Staff

lastmod 2023-04-26created 2021-03-217 edits

In Western musical notation, the staff (or stave) is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces, each representing a different pitch.

Staff

The five lines alone do not tell you the pitch. A clef, which fixes the position of the notes, is therefore drawn at the very beginning of the five lines; only once the clef is drawn and the note positions are fixed does it become a staff (sheet music).

By size, staves are divided into the 'single staff', the 'grand staff', and the 'score'.

Single staff

A one-line staff used to write songs for solo voice or pieces for a solo instrument.

• Treble staff
• Bass staff

Grand staff

When writing choral pieces, or pieces for instruments with a wide range that can play chordal accompaniment, such as the piano, organ, or harp, it is hard to fit every note on a one-line staff, so a grand staff that joins a treble clef staff and a bass clef staff together is used (other staves are also used as needed). A grand staff for instruments is joined with '{', and a grand staff for choir with '['.

Score

For chamber or orchestral works played by many kinds of instruments, or for choral works (where each part moves independently and is hard to write on a grand staff), a staff made by gathering several single staves, that is, a score, is used.

The score is used by the conductor; performers usually read single staves.

A score is written in the order woodwinds, brass, percussion, keyboards, strings. The keyboard section, which uses a grand staff, also includes instruments that use the same staff ({), such as the harp and celesta. When grouping instruments of the same family, they are written in order starting from the instrument with the highest range.

See also

• Music
• List of musical symbols

Favorite site

• Wikipedia (en) Staff (music)
• Basic Guide to Music Notation ( Music Notation Basic Guide ) - Lecture 47 :: The Note Music Story ¹

References