Multiple Lines of Music
Ensembles
You will often see sheet music where there are more than one line of dots. This can be be-
cause there are different melody lines being sung/played which combine to produce the
overall sound. For example, if you are a singer in a choir and you look at a piece of vocal
music (such as the one below) you will see that there are 4 distinct voices who sing their
own melody lines. These 4 voices (usually Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass) will all be singing a
different note and these 4 notes combine to produce the overall sound as shown below....
You will need to keep a close eye on your part (the easiest way is to look at the direction of
the stems) in order to make sure you are singing the correct notes. Similarly, if more than
one instrument is playing at the same time then multiple lines of music will be written. Mu-
sic for a group of instruments will often be put onto separate staves as shown below for
the conductor to follow. Additional individual parts are also often provided for individual
players.