Music Staff – Music Notes on the Stave

To write music, music notes and other musical symbols (clef, rest, alteration…) are placed on the music staff (or stave).  The staff (or stave) is made by five parallel horizontal lines.

Lines and Spaces on the Music Staff (or Stave)

The space between each line is called space. Lines and spaces are always counted from the bottom up :

Music notes can be placed on lines or in spaces of the music staff :

Music Staff and Music Clefs

Mini Interactive Tutorial

Kids and adults could learn about the music notes, the G (treble) clef and the staff now with our free online mini interactive tutorial Staff and Treble Clef HN. Just select the image below to open it in a new tab.

Treble Clef, Bass Clef, Alto and Tenor Clef

To determine the names of the music notes on a staff, one of the three music clefs is placed on the beginning of each music staff. The G clef (Treble clef) is placed on the second line, the F clef (Bass clef) on the fourth line (Bass clef), the C clef on the first, second, third or fourth line.

Learn More About Music Staff and Music Theory

Clefs – Treble, Bass, Alto, Tenor

Learn about the different musical clefs and which one is used for each musical instrument.

Music Notes – Name of Notes (A B C or Do Re Mi)

Seven notes of music and two systems to name them.

7 Note Values (Whole Note, Half Note, Quarter Note…)

The type (shape) of musical notes (Quarter Note, Half Note, Whole Note) fixes the note values (duration).

Music Rests (Whole Rest, Half Rest…)

For each music note, there is a music rest of equivalent value.