The musical staff are the five lines that written music is placed on also called staff or staves when there is more than one. The overall pitch of the staff is indicated by the clef symbol. There are several clef symbols in music. We will focus on the two most common ones the treble clef and bass clef.

Treble Staff

A treble staff is represented by the Treble Clef and has the G note circled in it and is also called the G Treble Clef.

The notes of the treble staff are from E to F. The spaces spell FACE and the lines can be remembered using the mnemonic phrase "Every Good Boy Does Fine".

Bass Staff

The bass staff has two dots in it and they are above and below the F note and this represents the F Bass Clef or the F Bass Staff.

The notes of the bass staff spell ACEG and can be remembered with the phrase "All Cows Eat Grass or All Cars Eat Gas". The lines can be remembered with the phrase "Good Boys Do Fine Always".

Ledger Lines

If you have higher or lower notes than can be placed on the staff you use ledger lines to extend the staff. Ledger lines are little pieces of extra staff that helps you to read the pitch of the notes represented.

Middle C is on the line between the treble and bass staff staves. Go 2 lines down from the Treble Staff and you will reach the bass staff. Go two lines up from the Bass Staff and you will reach the Treble Staff.

Treble Staff with Ledge Lines

Here is a Treble staff with every possible ledger line and notes possible.

Bass Staff with Ledger Lines

Here is a Bass staff with every possible ledger line and notes possible.

Grand Staff

The Grand Staff is used for piano, other keyboards, and some mallet instruments.

The Grand Staff includes both the treble and bass clefs and are joined together by the starting bar and the final bar line. There is also a brace joining them at the beginning showing that both staves belong to the same instrument

Measures

Throughout the staff there are barlines, each space between the barlines is called a measure. The last barline will be a thin and a thick line representing the Final Barline. The measures are referred to by numbering so the first measure would be measure one, second measure would be measure two and so forth.

Measures are also referred to as bars, so bar one would be the first measure. In blues there are 12 bars or 12 measures that repeat for the duration song some songs will repeat the 12-bars eight or nine times.