In Music notation is a system of writing for music. The term sheet music is used for written music to distinguish from audio recordings. In sheet music for ensembles, a score shows music for all players together, while parts contain only the music played by an individual musician. A score can... musical notation, the staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines on which This article is about music. For information about money, see banknote. In music, a note is either a unit of fixed pitch that has been given a name, or the graphic representation of that pitch in a notation system, and sometimes its duration, or a specific instance of either, so... note symbols are placed to indicate In music, pitch is the perception of the frequency of a note. For example, the A above middle C is nowadays set at 440 Hz (often written as A = 440 Hz, and known as concert pitch), although this has not always been the case (see #Historical pitch standards). Pitch is... pitch and Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds over time. When governed by rule, it is called meter. It is inherent in any time-dependent medium, but it is most associated with music, dance, and the majority of poetry. The study... rhythm. The lines are numbered from bottom to top; the bottom line is the first line and the top line is the fifth line.

The musical staff can be thought of as a In mathematics, the graph of a function is the collection of all pairs (x, f(x)) of the function. In particular graph means the graphical representation of this collection, in the form of a curve, together with axes, etc. Graphing is sometimes referred to as curve sketching. The graph of... graph of Pitch may refer to: Pitch is the property of a sound or musical tone measured by its perceived frequency Pitch, or tone of voice, refers to variation of tone in tonal language, and in languages with melodic accent Pitch, a throw of a baseball by a pitcher Pitch, part of... pitch with respect to A duration is an amount of time or a particular time interval. For example, an event in the common sense has a duration greater than zero (but not very long), but in certain specialised senses, a duration of zero. It is often cited as one of the fundamental aspects of... time; pitches are roughly given by their vertical position on the staff, and notes on the left are played before notes to their right. In both cases, however, the notations are not exactly proportional but are encoded by symbols.

Music on the staff is read from left to right: one This article is about music. For information about money, see banknote. In music, a note is either a unit of fixed pitch that has been given a name, or the graphic representation of that pitch in a notation system, and sometimes its duration, or a specific instance of either, so... note to the right of another means that it is to be played later; how much later depends on its Parts of a note In music notation, a note value indicates the relative duration of a note, using the color or shape of the note head, the presence or absence of a stem, and the presence or absence of flags. A rest indicates a silence of an equivalent duration. Note... note value and the This article is about tempo in music. For tempo in chess, see Tempo (chess). In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for time) is the speed or pace of a given piece. Measuring tempo The tempo of a piece will typically be written at the start of a piece of music, and... tempo. A The time signature (also known as meter signature) is a notational device used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each bar and which note value (minim, crotchet, eighth note and so on) constitutes one beat. Two staves with time signature highlighted in blue Most time... time signature groups notes on the staff into In musical terminology, a bar or measure is a segment of time defined as a given number of beats of a given duration. The word measure is heard more frequently in the U.S., while bar is used in other English-speaking countries, although musicians generally understand both usages. A... measures.

Staff, with staff positions indicated

Staff positions. The vertical position of the notehead on the staff indicates which note is to be played: notes that are higher in pitch are marked higher up on the staff. The notehead can be placed with the center of its notehead intersecting a line (on a line), or in between the lines touching the lines above and below (in a space). Notes which fall outside the range of the staff are placed on or between Figure 1. leger lines above the staff, using eighth notes. The lines on the right would usually be considered too far off the staff and would be written in a different clef or with 8va notation. A leger line (sometimes spelled ledger line) is a tool of musical notation to... leger lines (British Figure 1. leger lines above the staff, using eighth notes. The lines on the right would usually be considered too far off the staff and would be written in a different clef or with 8va notation. A leger line (sometimes spelled ledger line) is a tool of musical notation to... ledger lines), lines the width of the note they need to hold, added above or below the staff.

Exactly which This article is about music. For information about money, see banknote. In music, a note is either a unit of fixed pitch that has been given a name, or the graphic representation of that pitch in a notation system, and sometimes its duration, or a specific instance of either, so... notes are represented by which staff positions is determined by a A clef (French for key) is a symbol used in musical notation that assigns notes to lines and spaces on the musical staff. A clef can be thought of as assigning a certain note to a specific line on the staff; adjacent spaces are assigned the notes that follow logically... clef placed at the beginning of the staff; the clef identifies a particular line as a specific note, and all other notes are determined relative to that line. For example, the A clef (French for key) is a symbol used in musical notation that assigns notes to lines and spaces on the musical staff. A clef can be thought of as assigning a certain note to a specific line on the staff; adjacent spaces are assigned the notes that follow logically... treble clef puts the G above In music, the term middle C refers to the pitch-class C located between the staves of the grand staff. When calculated in equal temperament with a reference of A above middle C as 440 Hz, the frequency of the middle C note is approximately 261.625565 Hertz. See pitch... middle C on the second line. The In music theory, an interval is the difference (a ratio or logarithmic measure) in pitch between two notes and often refers to those two notes themselves (otherwise known as a dyad). An interval class is measured by the shortest distance possible between its two pitch classes. Intervals may be labelled... interval between adjacent staff positions is one See also: Dance step, Stairway. In music, a step is a linear interval between two pitches which are consecutive scale degrees; conjuct melodic motion, which in a diatonic scale is either a minor second or major second. More generally it is a smaller or narrower interval in a musical line... step in the In Music theory, the diatonic major scale (also known as the Guido scale), from the Greek diatonikos or to stretch out, is a fundamental building block of the European-influenced musical tradition. It is sometimes used to refer to all the modes, but is generally used only in reference to... diatonic scale. Once fixed by a clef, the notes represented by the positions on the staff can be modified by the In musical notation, a key signature is a series of sharp symbols or flat symbols placed on the staff, designating notes that are to be played sharp or flat unless otherwise noted with an accidental. Key signatures are generally written immediately after the clef at the beginning of a line... key signature, or by An accidental is a musical notation symbol used to raise or lower the pitch of a note. Standard use of accidentals Accidentals: sharp, flat, natural In most cases, a sharp raises the pitch of a note one semitone while a flat lowers it a semitone. A natural is used to... accidentals on individual notes. A clefless staff may be used to represent a set of Percussion instruments are played by being struck, shaken, rubbed or scraped. They are perhaps the oldest form of musical instruments. Some percussion instruments play not only rhythm, but also melody and harmony. Classifications Most percussion instruments have a distinct tone; even drums are tuned. However, a distinction is usually made... percussion sounds; each line typically represents a different instrument.

When two staves joined by a brace are intended to be played by a single instrument, a grand staff (British - great stave)is created. Typically, the upper staff has a A clef (French for key) is a symbol used in musical notation that assigns notes to lines and spaces on the musical staff. A clef can be thought of as assigning a certain note to a specific line on the staff; adjacent spaces are assigned the notes that follow logically... treble clef and the lower staff has a A clef (French for key) is a symbol used in musical notation that assigns notes to lines and spaces on the musical staff. A clef can be thought of as assigning a certain note to a specific line on the staff; adjacent spaces are assigned the notes that follow logically... bass clef. In this case, In music, the term middle C refers to the pitch-class C located between the staves of the grand staff. When calculated in equal temperament with a reference of A above middle C as 440 Hz, the frequency of the middle C note is approximately 261.625565 Hertz. See pitch... middle C is between the two staves, and it can be written on the first Figure 1. leger lines above the staff, using eighth notes. The lines on the right would usually be considered too far off the staff and would be written in a different clef or with 8va notation. A leger line (sometimes spelled ledger line) is a tool of musical notation to... leger line below the upper staff or the first Figure 1. leger lines above the staff, using eighth notes. The lines on the right would usually be considered too far off the staff and would be written in a different clef or with 8va notation. A leger line (sometimes spelled ledger line) is a tool of musical notation to... leger line above the lower staff. When playing the The piano Piano is a common abbreviation for pianoforte, a large musical instrument with a keyboard (see keyboard instrument). Its sound is produced by strings stretched on a rigid frame. These vibrate when struck by felt-covered hammers, which are activated by the keyboard. The word pianoforte is Italian for... piano, the upper staff is normally played with the right hand and the lower staff with the left hand. In music intended for the This article or section should be merged with Pipe organ The Casavant pipe organ at Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica, Montreal The organ is a type of keyboard musical instrument, distinctive because the sound is not produced by a percussion action, as on a piano or celesta, or by... organ, a grand staff includes three staves, one for each hand and one for the feet.

Examples

The following is a grand staff (to be played by, for example, a piano). Each staff has seven notes and one rest.

Here is an example image with some typical music notation

Typical music notation. See the image page for an explanation of the symbols.

External Links

• Tonalsoft Encyclopaedia of Tuning (http://tonalsoft.com/enc/index2.htm?staff.htm)