The Staff

Lesson 2 of 8 · ~5 min · Interactive

In Lesson 1 you learned the note names on the piano. But musicians rarely read letter names - they read the staff (or stave): five horizontal lines that turn pitch into a picture. The higher a note sits on the staff, the higher it sounds.

1.Lines and spaces

The staff has five lines and four spaces between them. A note can sit on a line (the line passes through the note head) or in a space (the note head fits between two lines). Every line and every space is one letter name of its own.

2.Reading upward, step by step

Moving from a line to the next space (or a space to the next line) moves you exactly one letter name up or down. This scale climbs line, space, line, space, from E up to F:

3.Ledger lines

Music doesn’t stop at the edges of the staff. When a note is too high or too low, we draw short extra lines just for that note, called ledger lines. The most famous ledger-line note is Middle C - it sits on its own little line just below the treble staff.

4.Practice: name that note

A note appears on the staff - click the letter name you think it is. Use your mnemonics!