Rhythm and Pitch in Staff Notation
Introduction to Staff Notation
- Staff notation is a method of visually representing pitch and rhythm using symbols on a set of five lines and four spaces, known as a stave.
- The vertical location of a note on the stave signifies its pitch. The higher the note is placed on the stave, the higher its pitch.
- The horizontal alignment of notes signifies their temporal relationship - notes that are placed further to the right are played later.
Understanding Rhythm in Staff Notation
- Musical rhythm is indicated in staff notation by the shape of the note head and tails.
- A note with a closed note head and no tail, referred to as a whole note, represents a musical duration of four beats.
- A note with a closed note head and a single tail, or a half note, signifies two beats.
- A quarter note, signified by a closed note head and one tail, indicates a duration of one beat.
- There are also eighth notes, sixteenth notes, thirty-second notes and so on, each with half the duration of the note type preceding it.
Recognising Rests in Staff Notation
- Rests represent a silence in the music. They are indicated by specific symbols and their location on the stave does not affect their duration.
- There are different types of rests corresponding to the different note lengths, so a whole rest represents four beats of silence, a half rest is two beats of silence and so on.
Understanding Pitch in Staff Notation
- Each line and space on the stave represents a different pitch.
- The clef at the beginning of a piece of music indicates whether the music is to be played high or low.
- The two most common clefs are the treble clef and bass clef. A piece of music may also change clefs partway through.
- The common Western system uses seven letter names for notes - A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. After G, the next note is A again, one octave higher.
- The use of sharps and flats can adjust the pitch of a note up or down by half a step respectively.
Key Signatures and Scales
- In addition to sharps and flats that appear next to individual notes, key signatures can pre-set a scale to use sharps or flats.
- A scale is a sequence of notes in ascending or descending order of pitch.
- There are many types of scales, including major, minor, and modes.
Chords and Harmony in Staff Notation
- When multiple different notes are played at the same time, this forms a chord.
- The study of chords and their relationships is known as harmony.
- Harmonic progressions and chord sequences can also be indicated in staff notation.