AFTER LEARNING ABOUT THE LINES AND SPACES OF THE MUSICAL STAFF WE ARE NOW GOING TO IDENTIFY EACH LINE AND SPACE WITH A LETTER FROM THE MUSICAL ALPHABET.
A SYMBOL, CALLED A CLEF, IS PLACED TO THE LEFT SIDE OF THE STAFF TO DETERMINE THE NAME OF EACH LINE OR SPACE.
BY UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF MOVING IN STEP-WISE MOTION FROM LINE TO SPACE IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE MUSICAL ALPHABET FORWARD AND BACKWARDS, IT IS EASY TO DETERMINE ANY NOTE ON ANY MUSICAL STAFF JUST BY MEMORIZING THE NAME OF ONE LINE ON THE PARTICULAR CLEF'S STAFF (WHICH THE SYMBOL ACTUALLY SHOWS YOU).
IN NOTE READING THE CONCEPTS ARE THE SAME ONLY THE LINES AND SPACES ASSOCIATED WITH EACH SYMBOL HAVE DIFFERENT MUSICAL ALPHABET LETTER NAMES.
THE 3 BASIC CLEF SYMBOLS (THOUGHT THERE ARE OTHERS) ARE:
TREBLE or "G" CLEF:
Treble Clef notation is generally used for instruments or voices in a higher range
(right hand of the piano, violin, flute, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, female voices, etc.)
BASS or "F" CLEF:
Bass Clef notation is generally used for instruments or voices in a lower range
(left hand of the piano, cello, string bass, trombone, tuba, bassoon, male voices, etc.
ALTO or "C" CLEF:
Alto Clef notation is not commonly used except for on the viola.
