Classical Piano Lesson

Here we will talk about your purposes on course and goal you want to reach.

What it looks like

The Grand Stave

Though we know the stave as five horizontal lines it originated as eleven. The 11 line stave is called the grand stave.

Pitch ascends through the lines and spaces of the grand stave.

Our five line stave is easier to read than the grand stave. But to reduce our stave to five lines we need to know which five lines we are referring to. For that we use a clef.

• The top five lines = the treble.
• The bottom five lines = the bass clef.
• The middle five lines = the alto clef.
• The tenor clef stave is one line down from the alto clef stave.

It is comforting to see how closely the staves are related.

A B C D E F G

We name the ascensions of pitch with the first 7 letters of the alphabet, A B C D E F G. The alphabet ascends smoothly through the lines and spaces of the grand stave. We repeat the names at each eighth ascension.

A B C D E F G A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

The easy ascension on the grand stave doesn’t look so easy on the 5 line staves. The middle line is B on the treble clef, D on the bass clef, C on the alto clef and A on the tenor clef.

The tenor clef is a line under the alto clef. The top of the tenor clef is the bottom of the treble clef. The middle of the tenor clef is the top of the bass clef. The bottom of the tenor clef is the middle of the bass clef.

Alternative names for the clefs

Here is another way to remember the clefs and the names of the notes on the stave. This method will suit you if you think in pictures. Look to the pivotal point of the clef symbol.

The treble clef symbol winds round G above Middle C. The bass clef symbol curls round F below Middle C. The alto and tenor clef symbols mirror through Middle C.

• The treble clef is a G clef.
• The bass clef is an F clef.
• The alto and tenor clefs are C clefs.

• Names of Notes On Musical Staff

  We will start with the notes of the musical staff. Music is written on a staff consisting of five lines and four spaces. The lines and spaces are named after the first seven letters of the alphabet, namely, A B C D E F G.

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  The Treble Clef:

  Here’s an image of a treble clef. It is also known as the G clef. The second line of the treble clef is known as the G line.  Many people call this clef the G clef because of the fact that it circles the G line.

  Let’s take a look at the music note names for the lines of the treble clef. They are E G B D F. An easy way to remember this is with the phrase Every Good Boy Does Fine. The diagram below shows you the names of the lines in the treble clef.

  We move now to the letter names of the spaces of the treble clef. They are F A C E. This one is easier to remember because it spells the word, “face”. The diagram below clearly shows the names of the spaces in the treble clef.

  Here are the notes of the lines and the spaces:

And now for the bass clef. There’s an image of the bass clef below. It’s also known as the F clef. The fourth line of this clef is the F line. Many people call this clef the F clef because of the fact that there are two dots on either side of the F line. All other note names are figured out from this line.

The names of the lines on the bass clef from lowest to highest are G B D F A. These letters may be remembers by using the phrase Good Boys Do Fine Always.

How about the spaces? The spaces of the bass clef are named A C E G. To remember these notes, try the phrase, All Cars Eat Gas.