The staff and clefs: treble, bass, and C clefs

Definition

The staff is the system of five lines and four spaces on which pitches are written. Lines are counted from the bottom up (line 1 = the lowest). Notes that fall outside the staff are written on ledger lines (short added lines). The clef, placed at the beginning of each staff, tells you which note sits on a given line: everything else follows by counting stepwise (line, space, line…).

The three families of clefs

• G clef (treble clef): the spiral wraps around line 2, which becomes G4 (the G above middle C). Used by violin, flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, female voice, the right hand of the piano, guitar (sounding an octave lower).
• F clef (bass clef): the two dots sit around line 4, which becomes F3 (the F below middle C). Used by cello, double bass, bassoon, trombone, tuba, electric bass, bass voice, the left hand of the piano.
• C clefs: the center of the clef marks the line of middle C (C4 in scientific notation). It is movable: change the line, and the clef's name changes.

The seven clefs (the Italian solfège system)

In Italian conservatories, reading in all seven clefs (Pozzoli and Bona methods) also trains sight transposition: reading a piece in another clef is equivalent to moving it by a fixed interval.

Where middle C sits

• Treble: first ledger line below the staff.
• Bass: first ledger line above the staff.
• Alto: line 3. Tenor: line 4.

On the piano, the grand staff (the brace joining treble and bass) is symmetrical around middle C.

Special clefs

• Octave treble clef (with a small 8 below): sounds an octave lower than written. It is the clef of the guitar and of the vocal tenor (the plain treble clef is often written, with the octave understood).
• Treble clef with 8 above: piccolo, soprano recorder.
• Double bass and electric bass: by convention they are written in bass clef an octave higher than the real sound even without the 8.
• Neutral clef (two bars): unpitched percussion; each line or space is an instrument (in the most common convention kick on space 1, snare on space 3, hi-hat above the staff with an “x” notehead).
• Tablature (TAB): six lines = six guitar strings, the numbers are frets.

Practical reading rules

• Learn three “anchors” per clef (treble: G on line 2, middle C below, C5 in space 3; bass: F on line 4, middle C above, C3 in space 2) and read by intervals, not note by note.
• Beyond three ledger lines reading becomes difficult: use 8va / 8vb (see Abbreviations) or a clef change.
• Stems: below line 3 they go up (on the right of the notehead), from line 3 up they go down (on the left).

Example

The C major triad C4–E4–G4:

• Treble: C on the first ledger line below the staff, E on line 1, G on line 2.
• Bass (an octave lower, C3–E3–G3): C in space 2, E in space 3, G in space 4. The bass clef lines, from the bottom, are G B D F A; the spaces A C E G.
• Alto: C on line 3, E on line 4, G on line 5. The alto clef lines are F A C E G.
• Tenor: C on line 4, E in space 4, G on the first ledger line above.

Counting like this, line–space–line from an anchor, is the exercise to repeat until reading becomes automatic.

Use in a real piece

In Mozart's String Quartets the viola always reads in alto clef and the cello moves to tenor clef in high passages; in Beethoven's Symphonies the bassoons and trombones also alternate between bass and tenor clef.

Exercise for the producer

1. In MuseScore (free), write the bass line of one of your loops in bass clef and the melody in treble clef; export to MIDI and compare it with FL Studio's Piano roll.
2. Transcribe the same melody in alto clef: it's the best training for reading viola parts when you study orchestral scores.
3. Sing the note names aloud (spoken solfège) for eight bars in tenor clef every day for a week.

Links

Note Names and Octaves; Accidentals; Reading the Orchestral Score; Transposition and Transposing Instruments.