Below: the range of the clefs with middle C circled

Clefs:

What is a clef?: A clef is a symbol found at the beginning of a line, a clef indicates the notes pitch on each line or space. The purpose of a clef is to keep as many notes as possible on the stave in order to avoid the use of ledger lines (see Unit 1, Lesson 3). Different instruments will use different clefs depending on their register. Below are the four main clefs that are used in contemporary music.

Treble: Treble clef is the main clef used for instruments with higher registers, it is mainly used to show notes higher than middle C on the piano. For pianists the treble clef normally shows notes that should be played in the range of the right hand on the piano.

Bass: The bass clef is another commonly used clef. However, unlike the treble clef, the bass clef is used to show notes that are lower than middle C, this allows for musicians playing instruments with lower registers (e.g. bass guitar) to read their music easily.

Tenor: The tenor clef is an uncommon clef that is used to show the higher notes of the bass register without the extensive use of ledger lines. Common instruments that use the tenor clef are cello, double bass and bassoon. In the tenor clef, middle C is found on the fourth line up from the bottom.

Alto: Like the tenor clef, it is uncommon to see the alto clef in contemporary music. It was traditionally used to transcribe music for alto singers as their range sits between notes in the treble and bass clefs. In the alto clef middle C is written on the middle line.

Example:

Below is a short phrase written in both the treble and the bass clef. By playing the audio sample you can hear how different each phrase sounds despite the fact that the melody has the same shape. You can also hear the different pitches each of the clef's are in. For example, the notes in the bass clef are distinctly lower than the notes in the treble clef.

Clef example.mp4

Why are clefs important?

Clefs are used to help musicians read music more efficiently. Below is the same phrase from above but the phrases have been put in the other clef. You can see that the extensive use of ledger lines makes the music very hard to read. Without ledger lines the notes outside of the clef will just be floating dots which obviously makes it very hard to tell the difference between the notes. If we didn't have clefs, musicians would be unable to properly distinguish the difference between the notes as we would be using one 'grand stave' which was a traditional form of notating music. However we use clefs now as it breaks down music in to smaller, more readable chunks.

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