It means that both hands are played in treble clef. In other words, read the left hand notes as though they were written for your right hand. Similarly, two bass clefs would mean to read the right hand notes as though they were written for your left hand.

The grand staff (or “great stave” as it’s called in Britain), is a combination of two staves put together, usually a treble clef and a bass clef. This combination clef is used for a variety of instruments, including piano, organ, marimba (pictured above), harp, and more.

The note that connects the treble and bass clefs together forming the grand staff is called MIDDLE C. Middle C is drawn using a leger line (which we talked about in the previous two lessons).

Notice that the centre line of our grand staff is the ledger line that sits on top of the bass clef, and below the treble clef. Imagine a single line running between both staves that this note rests on.

There are five lines and four spaces in a staff. When counting the lines and spaces, we count from the bottom line and bottom space. For example, the 1st line is the bottom line whereas the 5th line is the top line.

The spaces in the bass staff The bass clef is also known as the F clef, and the note below the stave is F which makes it easy to remember. The spaces on the bass stave are F – A – C – E – G – B.

Those below the staff are the lower notes, while those above are higher notes. As a beginner, the first leger line you should learn is middle C. On the grand staff, middle C is located between the treble and bass staff, as shown in the diagram on the right.

four spaces

breath mark

The Grand staff is nothing but a theoretical staff showing both the treble and the bass clef together, the treble on the top and bass in the bottom. The major advantage of using a grand staff for writing music is that you can show nearly all musical notes there without having to use many ledger lines or octave shifts.

Staff, also spelled stave, in the notation of Western music, five parallel horizontal lines that, with a clef, indicate the pitch of musical notes.

The treble clef (or G-clef) is the first musical symbol on the treble staff. Musical notes written on the treble staff are notes above the middle C note. The middle C note is the 4th C note on a modern 88-key piano keyboard. It is the C that is closest to the middle of the piano keyboard.

The “C” after the clef in place of the time signature stands for “Common Time,” and it is shorthand for 4/4 time. If you see a “C” with a vertical line through it, that stands for “Cut Time,” and it is shorthand for 2/2 time.

Do, Re, Mi etc… are called “solfege” syllables. If Do is in the first space of the staff, all notes in the first space are Do. If Do is in the first space, Re is on the 2nd (or next) line. If Do is in the first space, Mi is in the 2nd space.

Designation by octave

Middle C is the C that is in the middle of the grand staff- above the bass clef and below the treble clef — and in the center of the piano keyboard.

We will follow the International Standards Organization (ISO) system for register designations. In that system, middle C (the first ledger line above the bass staff or the first ledger line below the treble staff) is C4. An octave higher than middle C is C5, and an octave lower than middle C is C3.

Here octave -1 (minus one) is C0 this means therefore that middle C will be C4 being the 4th C on a 88 note piano….588677 Posts.

Musical notes have determined frequencies. For example, in the twelve-tone equal temperament (the most common tuning system since the 18th century), note A4 has a frequency of 420 Hz.

Frequencies for equal-tempered scale, A4 = 432 Hz