Dan Alonso
- Apr 12
- 2 min read

The Staff and Ledger Lines - Music Theory Lesson with Video

Hi Everyone, welcome to our lesson on the Musical Staff. You can get this post as a PDF lesson with worksheets and watch the YouTube Video.

The Musical Staff

The musical staff, also known as the stave, is a set of horizontal lines and spaces upon which musical notation is written. It serves as a visual representation of pitch and duration in written music. The staff provides a framework for organizing musical notes, rests, and other symbols.

Each line and space on the staff represents a specific pitch. The pitch of a note is determined by its vertical position on the staff.

The lines and spaces are numbered form the bottom to the top of the staff.

The Ledger Lines

Ledger lines are additional lines that extend above or below the regular staff. They are used to notate pitches that go beyond the range of the staff. For example, the piano has more notes than can fit on the staff, therefore, the ledger lines allow us to represent these additional notes.

Ledger lines are simply an extension of the musical staff and follow the same rules and patterns for reading notes. They are parallel to the staff lines and spaces, with a slightly longer line drawn than the note’s head size.

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The Grand Staff

The grand staff, also known as the great staff, is a musical staff that combines two staves, typically the treble clef (upper staff) and the bass clef (lower staff). It is used primarily for piano music and other keyboard instruments. The grand staff is created by joining the two staves with a brace, and it allows for the simultaneous notation of both the right and left hand parts.