Reading Simple Music Notation

The Musical Staff#

Have you ever seen written music? It has lots of lines and symbols that might look confusing at first. But once you learn what everything means, reading music is like learning a new language — and it opens up a whole world of music!

The most important thing in written music is the staff. The staff is the set of five parallel horizontal lines on which music is written. All the notes and symbols of music sit on or between these five lines.

Five Lines and Four Spaces#

The staff has five lines and four spaces. We count the lines and spaces from the bottom up.

Lines: Line 1 is at the bottom. Line 5 is at the top. Spaces: Space 1 is between lines 1 and 2. Space 4 is between lines 4 and 5.

Notes can sit ON a line (the line passes through the middle of the note) or IN a space (the note sits nestled between two lines).

Each line and each space represents a different musical pitch (a specific high or low sound). Where the note is placed on the staff tells you what note to play.

Why Five Lines?#

Five lines give musicians enough room to write the notes they need for most melodies without the staff getting too big and complicated. Higher notes sit higher on the staff. Lower notes sit lower.

Sometimes notes go above or below the five lines. When that happens, we add extra short lines called ledger lines to hold the note.

The Staff Is Like a Grid#

Think of the staff like a grid or a road map for music. Just as a map uses coordinates to tell you a location, the staff uses line and space positions to tell you a pitch.

Left to right on the staff represents time — notes on the left are played first, notes on the right come later.

Up and down on the staff represents pitch — notes higher on the staff are higher in pitch, notes lower on the staff are lower in pitch.

Now that you understand the staff, let's learn about the symbols that go on it!