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Contents: Start with Staffs
and Rhythm and ScalesPlaying Notes on the Keyboard
Whether you are a singer, composer, or instrumentalist, it is helpful to know how to locate and play notes on a keyboard. Take a look at how the notes you have learned in treble clef and bass clef correspond to the white keys of the piano. The note labeled Middle C is the C note nearest to the center of the keyboard. Notice that many of the notes may be written in either clef.
Playing Notes on Guitar and Other Instruments
If you play a treble instrument-like guitar, violin, flute, or clarinet-you'll probably want to place extra focus on reading music in treble clef. (Use a fingering chart for your instrument to memorize the playing positions of the notes you have learned.) Vocal music for soprano, alto, and tenor voices is also usually written in the treble clef (although a tenor sings notes an octave lower than written). Certain treble instruments-like clarinet, trumpet, and saxophone-sound lower or higher than the notes written on the staff. Guitar music is written one octave higher than it actually sounds. Here is a guitar fingering chart for a range of notes in the treble clef.
The Grand Staff
Pianists, in particular, should be quite familiar with the note names in both clefs. This is because music for piano is written on the grand staff, which is actually two staves joined together.
The staff with the treble clef is used to indicate music to be played by the right hand. The bass clef staff governs the left hand. The bracket that links the two staves together is called a brace.
The Octave Sign
Sometimes a composer or arranger intends for a passage to be played an octave higher than the notes shown on the staff. In treble clef, these passages are marked by an octave sign (a dotted line with 8va, 8, or 8ve) above the staff.
When an octave sign appears below the staff, the indicated passage should be played an octave lower than written. This inverted octave sign is only used to mark passages in bass clef (which are sometimes also marked with the Italian word bassa).
Octave signs are generally used to write very high passages in treble clef or very low passages in bass clef without using too many leger lines. This makes the music easier to read.
Contents: Start with Staffs
and Rhythm and Scales
