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Music vocabulary · Notation and Reading Music

Staff

Meaning in music, with examples

/stæf/nounCore term

In music, staff means: The set of five horizontal lines and four spaces on which notes are written. A note's position on the staff shows its pitch.

In Turkish: porte, dizek

How it is used

Used in notation lessons and notation software. Notes sit on a line or in a space; notes above or below the staff use ledger lines. Piano music is written on two staves joined together, called the grand staff.

Example sentences

  1. Draw a treble clef at the start of the staff, then write the scale.

  2. The high C sits on the second ledger line above the staff.

Common collocations

  • on the staff
  • grand staff
  • ledger line
  • treble staff
  • bass staff
  • clefThe symbol at the start of a staff that fixes the pitch of the lines and spaces. The most common are the treble (G) clef and the bass (F) clef.
  • noteA single musical sound with a particular pitch and length, or the written symbol that shows it. In English, notes are named with the letters A to G.
  • sheet musicMusic written or printed in notation on paper or a screen, so that musicians can read and play it.
  • barA short section of music that contains a fixed number of beats, shown on the page between two vertical lines called bar lines.
  • key signatureThe group of sharps or flats written at the start of every staff, just after the clef, that shows the key of the piece and which notes are always raised or lowered.

More terms: Notation and Reading Music

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