Music Notation
The musical alphabet consists of 7 letters: A B C D E F G
Music is written on a staff or stave, which consists of five parallel lines between which there are four spaces.
The Bass Clef
This symbol is called a bass clef. There is a bass clef at the beginning of every line of bass music
The Bass Staff
A staff with a bass clef written on it is called a bass staff.
This clef indicates the position of the F note which is on the line between the two dots, (it is an old fashioned method of writing the letter F.
The lines and spaces on the staff are named as such:
Extra notes can be added by the use of short lines, called ledger lines, e.g.:
When a note is placed on the staff its head indicates its position, e.g.:
When the note head is below the middle staff line, the stem points upward and when the head is above the middle line the stem points downward. A note placed on the middle line (D) can have its stem pointing either up or down.
Bar Lines are drawn across the staff, which divides the music into sections called bars or measures. A double bar line signifies the end of an important section of music, while a final bar line is written at the end of a piece.
