Basic Music Theory: How to Read, Write, and Understand Written Music

2: Lines, Lines, Everywhere There’s Lines

The Staff.

Music is written on a staff (plural staves) which is five horizontal parallel

lines. The five lines create four spaces between them.

Example 2.1 Blank staff.

Lines and spaces are numbered from bottom to top.

Example 2.2 Staff with lines and spaces numbered.

Theory Geek Alert

When things are counted in music—staff lines, degrees of a scale,

intervals, even the strings of a guitar (don’t worry if you have no idea

what some of these things are)— they’re always counted from the

bottom up.

Memory Tip

The following exercise works. It may feel a little silly, but kinesthetic

learning—learning with your body— works.

Take your hand—left or right—and put it up in front of your face with

the palm toward you. Pretend your fingers are the lines of the staff. The

spaces between your fingers are the spaces of the staff. Pinky is line

one, ring finger line two, middle finger line three, index finger line

four, and thumb line five. Between your pinky and ring finger is space

one, etc., etc. Touch each finger and say the number of the line. Do the

same with the spaces.

line 1

line 2

line 3

line 4

space 1

space 2

space 3

line 5 space 4