Questions tagged [clefs]

A clef (from French: clef “key”) is a musical symbol used to indicate the set of pitches of written notes.

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Are there more than 2 Clefs?

Are the treble and bass clef, as used in normal piano score, the only clefs around? Or are there others that have lost popularity, or are used in special cases, etc?
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Piano: grand staff with two treble clefs. Where to place hands?

I'm very new at playing the piano and would love to play an easy version of Clair de lune. Please see the sheet below. I get stuck right at the very beginning. I think I have figured out that '...
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Why are clefs associated with reference notes G, F and C?

Why don't we see, for example, a clef with a stylised symbol representing an A, B, D or an E? What's so special about G, F and C? Who decided to use them and why?
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Why are there transposing instruments that transpose by octave?

Some instruments (for example the guitar, the bass guitar, and the xylophone) have written music in a typical clef, however the note written and the note played are an octave lower or higher depending ...
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Bracket symbol added to G clef

What does the symbol mean that is added to the clef in the Tenor voice in Poulenc’s Mass in G Major? It has a similar shape to an old C clef, but it is added to the existing G clef.
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How can I learn to read bass clef score more naturally?

I hadn't read music for about 20 years, after doing a little classical guitar as a young child, and recently started learning piano. I was pleasantly surprised to find that reading music on the treble ...
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Alto clef makes so much sense; why isn't it used more often

I play guitar and trombone. This question does not concern me, but why don't more instruments with a wider range of notes (e.g. pianos) use alto clef? With C on the middle line, it makes so much sense....
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Ledger Lines vs. 8va notation

As musicians sight reading music – are you very comfortable reading parts in ledger lines or is it more convenient having higher/lower parts notated within the staff with an 8va (or 8vb) symbol? For ...
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Why not use only octave clefs?

There are a lot of clefs: G, F, and many C clefs. And it is not trivial to read some clef is you are familiar with another one. I think music comprehension would be made easier if we only used one ...
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What clef was first?

Adding up to my previous question, what clef was first and why? I guess there should be answers somewhere out there but I can't find them.
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Untuned Percussion Clef

G clef (usually treble), F clef (usually bass) and very movable C clef (alto/tenor) are all very definable, as are the dots contained within. Look at untuned percussion music, though, and there's ...
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Is there a Relative Pitch Clef?

To start out: I am more-or-less familiar with all the standard musical clef notations, including F, C, and G clefs; as well as the fact that clefs can be movable (tenor clef, french violin clef...) ...
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Why is the bass clef indicated twice on the same line in this Bartok piece?

Here's an excerpt from the piece Chromatic Invention from Bartok's Mikrokosmos, volume 3, page 39. I don't get why at the end of the lower line the bass clef indication is repeated. Is this "for ...
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Where was the D clef used?

I recently came across this score by Henry Work called "Grandfather's Clock". And i was a bit confused at first regarding this clef in the chorus. It seems to be a D clef. I was wondering if this ...
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When did keyboard partitions start to use the G-clef for the upper staff ?

When you look at very old sheetmusic (for harpsichord or organ), you see that the upper staff has a C-clef, first line. The lower one is the familiar bass F-clef, fourth line. Why and when did the ...
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Which clef is used for the tenors here? [duplicate]

In modern typesetting, tenors usually have an F clef (or an octaving C clef, with the 8 indicated or omitted). Consider following clef from Bellini's Norma (p. 125): It looks like an (octaving) G ...
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Do the F clef and G clef always reside on the same line?

I'm learning to play piano and have started reading sheet music. As far as I have seen the G-clef and F-clef are always on the same lines. Is this always the case? So will the middle line of the ...
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When did voice parts start using treble clef?

Parts for soprano, alto and tenor voices used to be written with the corresponding variant of movable C clef. When did the transition to treble (G) clef happen, and what drove the change -- composers,...
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Why have a clef change right after a previous clef?

I came across this section in Mozart's piano sonata no. It shows a clef change at the start of the measure, but the bass clef is shown right before it. Why would this be needed if the measure uses ...
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C Clef Showing Middle C on the Second Space: Printing Error, or Obscure Clef?

A friend of mine asked me for help on their theory assignment. Number 8 on the worksheet asked the student to write a certain scale with what appeared to be a standard alto clef, except that the point ...
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8va or clef change?

I've been transcribing music on and off for a few years now as a hobby and noticed while reading someone else's sheets that they have heaps of clef changes midway through the piece. It sort of blew my ...
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8 answers
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Why transpose at the octave?

If an instrument has a range too high or too low for composers to easily write its music on bass or treble clef, the music may be written either an octave higher or an octave lower than it sounds, in ...
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Grand Staff using the Bass Clef and Treble Alto-Tenor Clef

Does anybody have any additional information regarding the origins and usage of the Treble Alto-Tenor Clef symbol? I found it in the late Gardner Read's book on Music Notation, and beyond that - ...
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Bach Invention 1 BWV 772 Bar 13 same note simultaneously in both staves, play only one? [duplicate]

I'm learning Bach's Invention 1 BWV 772. Bar 13 has the same note E in both staves simultaneously. Should I only use right hand to play it? (I saw some past questions about both staves having the same ...
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