The Origin of the Modern Music Staff
The written notation of music is a foundational part of today's musical entertainment providing a method for musicians to play instruments or use their voices to produce music envisioned by the composer.
This begins with the composer recording on a "staff" consisting of five lines each musical note pitch and duration in an organized manner which a musicians' eyes interpret and instruct their brain to transmit to parts of the body the functions to play an instrument or sing to produce the composer's musical tune.
Sounds simple doesn't it? But, as with many great achievements it has been an evolution taking hundreds of years and contributions by scores of people to accomplish what we refer to today as modern sheet music.
Throughout the earlier centuries, many nationalities had different methods of music notation, some which still exist.
The original marks on paper called neumes, indicated a change in pitch of each note, but not how much change.
The first musical staff started as only a single horizontal line which over several hundred years progressed to five lines, and is the modern staff used in the western culture.
The pitch is indicated by the placement of a note on a line or space on the staff which are essentially the white keys on the piano.
The intermediate note pitch is the black keys of the piano, known as sharps or flats.
Our music is read from left to right.
There are normally two staffs in today's written music with the top staff called a treble staff and the bottom one, a bass staff.
A musical staff starts with a clef to mark a particular note on the staff.
The treble clef mark is placed on the second line up on the five line staff, and identifies the note G above the note middle C.
The bass clef is the bottom staff and marks the position of the note F below middle C.
Notes that cannot be accommodated by the two five line staffs are noted by individual lines called ledger lines, for each note.
To the right of the clef is the key signature on the staff which identifies certain notes, which, unless otherwise indicated, are considered sharps or flats throughout the song.
Next, is the time indicator which tells the beat of the music, with the notes divided by bars, separating the song into groups of beats.
The time signature indicates which kind of note counts as a beat (i.
e.
quarter note, half note, etc).
Using this combination of symbols a skilled musician produces the music envisioned by the composer, which a musician, or group of musicians can provide the listener(s) an orderly and beautiful ensemble of music! The originator of the modern staff was Guido d'Arezzo, an Italian monk living circa 1000 A.
D.
His concept opened the way for today's written music and the opportunity for composers to express their musical creative ingenuity, so we now have an unlimited scope of musical types and styles to fit any occasion or interest of musicians and the audience who benefit from this musical harvest.
This begins with the composer recording on a "staff" consisting of five lines each musical note pitch and duration in an organized manner which a musicians' eyes interpret and instruct their brain to transmit to parts of the body the functions to play an instrument or sing to produce the composer's musical tune.
Sounds simple doesn't it? But, as with many great achievements it has been an evolution taking hundreds of years and contributions by scores of people to accomplish what we refer to today as modern sheet music.
Throughout the earlier centuries, many nationalities had different methods of music notation, some which still exist.
The original marks on paper called neumes, indicated a change in pitch of each note, but not how much change.
The first musical staff started as only a single horizontal line which over several hundred years progressed to five lines, and is the modern staff used in the western culture.
The pitch is indicated by the placement of a note on a line or space on the staff which are essentially the white keys on the piano.
The intermediate note pitch is the black keys of the piano, known as sharps or flats.
Our music is read from left to right.
There are normally two staffs in today's written music with the top staff called a treble staff and the bottom one, a bass staff.
A musical staff starts with a clef to mark a particular note on the staff.
The treble clef mark is placed on the second line up on the five line staff, and identifies the note G above the note middle C.
The bass clef is the bottom staff and marks the position of the note F below middle C.
Notes that cannot be accommodated by the two five line staffs are noted by individual lines called ledger lines, for each note.
To the right of the clef is the key signature on the staff which identifies certain notes, which, unless otherwise indicated, are considered sharps or flats throughout the song.
Next, is the time indicator which tells the beat of the music, with the notes divided by bars, separating the song into groups of beats.
The time signature indicates which kind of note counts as a beat (i.
e.
quarter note, half note, etc).
Using this combination of symbols a skilled musician produces the music envisioned by the composer, which a musician, or group of musicians can provide the listener(s) an orderly and beautiful ensemble of music! The originator of the modern staff was Guido d'Arezzo, an Italian monk living circa 1000 A.
D.
His concept opened the way for today's written music and the opportunity for composers to express their musical creative ingenuity, so we now have an unlimited scope of musical types and styles to fit any occasion or interest of musicians and the audience who benefit from this musical harvest.
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