2.NOTING THE NOTES

STAFF

It consists of five horizontal lines and four spaces between them where musical notes are written.

We count the lines and spaces from the bottom to the top

Clefs

CLEF is a music symbol that indicates us the pitch of the notes in the staff.

There are 3 different clef symbols:

TREBLE CLEF or G clef BASS CLEF or F clef ALTO CLEF or C cle

TREBLE CLEF or G clef looks like a fancy letter G and when we write it at the very beginning of the staff it means that we are going to write note G in the second line.

BASS CLEF or F clef also looks like a fancy letter F and when we write it at the very beginning of the staff it means that the note placed on the fourth line is called F.

ALTO CLEF or C clef looks like a fancy letter C too! and when we write it at the very beginning of the staff it means that the note placed on the third line is called C

Ledger lines

When we run out of room on the staff we add ledger lines.

Ledger Lines: short lines that extend the 5 line, 4 space staff, allowing us to add extra notes.

They can be added above or below the treble and bass staff.

Those below the staff are the lower notes, while those above are higher notes.

There are sayings that helps you to remember the name of the notes in the staff:

Intervals

Interval is the distance between two notes.

We obtain the name of the interval by counting the number of notes it covers, from the first to the last ( including them). For example, the interval between C and A is a sixth (C-1, D-2, E-3,F-4,G -5, A-6).

• TYPES OF INTERVALS
• Intervals can be:
  • Melodic: interval in which both notes sound successively (one after another); they are written horizontally.
  • Harmonic: interval in which both notes sound simultaneously (at the same time); they are written vertically.
  • Ascending: interval in which the first note is lower than the second note.
  • Descending: interval in which the first note is higher than the second note.
  • Conjunct: interval in which both notes are consecutive steps in a scale.
  • Disjunct: interval in which both notes are not consecutive steps in a scale.
  • Simple: interval in which the distance between both notes does not exceed an octave.
  • Compound: interval in which the distance between both notes exceeds an octave.

Accidentals

Accidentals are music signs used to modify the sound of a note, making it a bit higher or lower in pitch.

•Sharp:# raises the pitch of the note a semitone (half tone).

•Flat:b lowers the pitch of the note a semitone.

•Natural: cancels the effect of the previous flat or Sharp.

The effect of this signs lasts only a bar and when a accidental appears , all the notes of the same pitch after it are affected. This means that if a C# appears , every C of the same bar after it sounds sharp. If you don’t want them to sound like that, the natural symbol is used to undo the Sharp or flat, thus the natural cancels the effect of the previous flat or sharp.

Tone and semitone

• Semitone: is the smallest distance between two consecutive notes.
• Tone: is the biggest distance in pitch between two consecutive notes. A tone can be divided into two semitones.