Staves:

What is a stave?: A stave is a set of 5 horizontal lines with 4 spaces in between that forms the basic framework for writing notated music. Notes are placed on the lines or in the spaces and by reading these a musician can tell what notes should be played depending on the clef (see Unit 1 Lesson 2). Notes follow the alphabet from A to G from the bottom to the top. The notes are read from left to right like a book.

Other elements of the musical score are placed on the stave. These include the clef, time signature, key signature, bar lines and rests. Other features such as tempo and dynamics are written above or below the staves (see bottom left for labelled score).

Example:

Here is an extract from Kalinka which is a Russian folk song. You can see in this example that the notes are written as letters. This is helpful to show the notes position on the stave. For example you can see in the first bar that the note E is found on the bottom line of the stave, and then the note D is in the space just below the first line to show that it is a lower pitch than E.

Why are staves important?:

Staves are vital for musicians as it allows for them to clearly see which notes they need to play. Staves also clearly show important elements of the score (e.g. clefs and key signature) and musicians can refer back to these elements quickly. Without staves it would be impossible to tell which notes are which and make a musicians job very hard.