Pitch of notes, and how to show them on the musical staff.

Notes on the piano           Treble Clef and Staff           Bass Clef and Staff          Ledger Lines

The Notes of a Piano Keyboard.
The white and black keys on a piano are arranged in a pattern. Each repeating group of 2 black notes (with a white note in-between) is followed by two white notes, then followed by 3 black notes with white notes in-between. Each repetition marks a new octave, which is a set of 8 white notes and 5 black notes. Try mouse-clicking the black and white notes on the piano picture, you should hear each note, and see its name and its staff representation. You will hear that the lower notes are on the left, the higher ones on the right.

There are only 7 different white notes, because the 8th note in an octave is a repeat of the first note, but at a higher pitch. The white notes are given the 7 letter names from A to G. The white note to the left of each pair of black notes is named C. So the next white note to its right is D, then E, and so on. After G, the next note is A, and this cycle continues right across the keyboard. If you play the 8 white notes in succession upwards from one C to the next, you have played the scale of C major.

There are seven octaves on a standard upright piano, going from a low A to a high A. It is convenient to number each C starting with C1 for the lowest, up to C7 for the highest. The C in the middle, which is C4, is usually called middle C. This is the reference point for describing all notes on the piano. An F between C3 and C4 is called F3. This numbering system is universally adopted in the world of MIDI music, in order to assign a unique name to every possible note.

The black notes are the sharps and flats, and each is one semi-tone higher than the white note to its left. A black note to the right of a white note is called a sharp, and is represented on the staff by the symbol #. So the black note to the right of each C is called C#.  A black note to the left of a white note is called a flat, shown on the staff as b. Since our C#  is also to the left of D, it may also be called Db.  Where a note may have two names, each is called the enharmonic of the other.

Some electronic keyboards have fewer than 7 octaves, but usually middle C is pretty much in the middle, and it is always called C4.  Grand pianos have 3 extra notes at the top end, making 88 instead of the usual 85 on an upright. These notes are Bb7, B7, and then C8 at the top.

Treble Clef - pitch of lines in the staff
The staff consists of five parallel horizontal lines, and notes are drawn either on a line, or in the space between two lines.  The lines are usually numbered from the bottom upwards. Also the space above the top line and the space below the bottom line are used. For notes higher or lower than these, little extra lines are used above or below the staff, these are called ledger lines. If you click on C6 on the piano below, you will see this note on the 2nd ledger line above the staff (shown at top left of the screen).

Notes from middle C upwards are usually represented on the treble clef, which uses the symbol at the beginning of the staff.  This treble clef symbol curls around the G on the second line from the bottom, so it is sometimes called the G clef. The four spaces of the treble clef, from bottom to top, represent the notes F A C E,  which are easily memorized as the word face.  The 5 lines, from bottom to top, are E G B D F.  Some children are taught to memorize this by saying Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit.  

Bass Clef - pitch of lines in the staff
Notes below middle C are usually shown on the bass clef, which uses the symbol      This symbol has 2 dots after it on either side of the fourth line of the staff, which is an F, So the bass clef is sometimes called the F clef.   The spaces from the bottom up show the notes A C E and G, so a useful mnemonic is "All Cows Eat Grass", as illustrated on the left.

The lines from bottom up show the notes G B D F A, so here the mnemonic Good  Birds  Don't  Fly  Away  may be helpful, as illustrated here. As for the treble clef, for notes higher or lower than these, little extra lines are used above or below the staff, these are called ledger lines. 

Notes on the piano           Treble Clef and Staff           Bass Clef and Staff           Ledger Lines


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