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I.6Part I, The Signs of Notation
Clefs
Now we come to the clefs. You'll meet the three clef shapes and their seven positions, and learn to name any note starting from the clef.
10 min10 questionsDanhauser § 18 to 22, note (c)
The clef is placed at the beginning of the staff, and it does two jobs. It sets the names of the notes, and at the same time it shows where they sit in the full range of pitches, in other words their actual pitch.
Three shapes, seven positions
There are three clef shapes:
the F clef, placed on the 3rd or the 4th line;
the C clef, Danhauser's “clé d'ut”, placed on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th line;
the G clef, placed on the 2nd line. As Danhauser noted, the G clef on the 1st line had already fallen out of use.
Each clef gives its name to the note on the line it occupies. The G clef on the 2nd line makes the note on the 2nd line a G; the F clef on the 4th line makes the note on the 4th line an F; the C clef on the 3rd line makes the note on the 3rd line a C.
The treble clef: a G clef on the 2nd line.The bass clef: an F clef on the 4th line.The baritone clef: an F clef on the 3rd line.The soprano clef: a C clef on the 1st line.The mezzo-soprano clef: a C clef on the 2nd line.The alto clef: a C clef on the 3rd line.The tenor clef: a C clef on the 4th line.
Finding the other notes
Once you know the name of one note, the others are easy to find, because they always follow the order C, D, E, F, G, A, B. In treble clef, if the note on the 2nd line is G, the note in the 1st space just below it is F, and the note in the 2nd space just above it is A. Keep going step by step, remembering that after B you start again at C.
Starting from the G on the 2nd line, you can find every note.The same method in bass clef, starting from the F on the 4th line.In alto clef, starting from the C on the 3rd line.
The range of pitches and its registers
Danhauser gives the name musical scale, “échelle musicale” in French, to the set of all the sounds the ear can appreciate, from the lowest to the highest that voices or instruments can produce. We'll simply call it the range of pitches. It is divided into three parts called registers:
the low register holds the lowest sounds, in the first third of the range;
the middle register holds the sounds in between, in the second third;
the high register holds the highest sounds, in the last third.
Why several clefs?
The range of pitches is very wide, and writing all of it on a single staff would take a huge number of ledger lines. The different clefs let you place whichever register you need on the staff: each clef “frames” a different zone of pitch.
Written in treble clef, these four low sounds need up to six ledger lines.In bass clef, the same sounds fit on the lines of the staff.
Line of the general staff
Note
Reference
11
F5
10
D5
9
B4
8
G4
G: G clef
7
E4
6
C4 (ut)
C: C clef
5
A3
4
F3
F: F clef
3
D3
2
B2
1
G2
The eleven-line general staff. Lines 7 to 11 form the treble-clef staff; lines 1 to 5 form the bass-clef staff.