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List of Musical Symbols

The document provides a comprehensive overview of modern musical symbols used in western musical notation. It describes symbols such as the staff, ledger lines, bar lines, clefs including the treble, bass and alto clefs, key signatures, and tablature notation for plucked instruments. Various clefs assign pitches to the staff lines and are used to notate different vocal and instrumental ranges. Key signatures define the key of the music using flats or sharps.

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Anthony Pineda
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633 views3 pages

List of Musical Symbols

The document provides a comprehensive overview of modern musical symbols used in western musical notation. It describes symbols such as the staff, ledger lines, bar lines, clefs including the treble, bass and alto clefs, key signatures, and tablature notation for plucked instruments. Various clefs assign pitches to the staff lines and are used to notate different vocal and instrumental ranges. Key signatures define the key of the music using flats or sharps.

Uploaded by

Anthony Pineda
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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List of musical symbols

Modern musical symbols are the marks and symbols that are widely used in western
musical scores, styles, and instruments today. This is intended to be a comprehensive guide
to the various symbols encountered in modern musical notation. These symbols are used in
modern pieces of western music to describe a composition in its fundamentals
– pitch, rhythm, tempo – and, to some degree, its articulation.

Lines

Staff
The staff is the fundamental latticework of music notation, upon which
symbols are placed. The five stave lines and four intervening spaces
correspond to pitches of the diatonic scale – which pitch is meant by a given
line or space is defined by the clef.

Ledger or leger lines


Used to extend the staff to pitches that fall above or below it. Such ledger
lines are placed behind the note heads, and extend a small distance to each
side. Multiple ledger lines may be used when necessary to notate pitches
even farther above or below the staff.

Bar line
Used to separate measures (see time signatures below for an explanation
ofmeasures). Bar lines are extended to connect the upper and lower staffs of
a grand staff.

Double bar line, Double barline


Used to separate two sections of music. Also used at changes in key
signature,time signature or major changes in style or tempo.

Bold double bar line, Bold double barline


Used to indicate the conclusion of a movement or an entire composition.

Dotted bar line, Dotted barline


Subdivides long measures of complex meter into shorter segments for ease
of reading, usually according to natural rhythmic subdivisions.

Accolade, brace
Connects two or more lines of music that are played simultaneously.
[1]
Depending on the instruments playing, the brace, or accolade, will vary in
designs and styles.

Clefs define the pitch range, or tessitura, of the staff on which it is placed. A clef is usually
theleftmost symbol on a staff. Additional clefs may appear in the middle of a staff to indicate
a change in register for instruments with a wide range. In early music, clefs could be placed
on any of several lines on a staff.
G clef (Treble Clef)
The centre of the spiral defines the line or space upon which it rests as the
pitchG above middle C, or approximately 392 Hz. Positioned here, it assigns
G above middle C to the second line from the bottom of the staff, and is
referred to as the "treble clef." This is the most commonly encountered clef
in modern notation, and is used for most modern vocal music. Middle-C is
the 1st ledger line below the stave here. The shape of the clef comes from a
stylised upper-case-G.

C clef (Alto Clef and Tenor Clef)


This clef points to the line (or space, rarely) representing middle C, or
approximately 262 Hz. Positioned here, it makes the center line on the
staffmiddle C, and is referred to as the "alto clef." This clef is used in modern
notation for the viola. While all clefs can be placed anywhere on the staff to
indicate various tessitura, the C clef is most often considered a "movable"
clef: it is frequently seen pointing instead to the fourth line and called a
"tenor clef". This clef is used very often in music written for bassoon, cello,
and trombone; it replaces the bass clef when the number of ledger lines
above the bass staff hinders easy reading.

C clefs were used in vocal music of the classical era and earlier; however,
their usage in vocal music has been supplanted by the universal use of the
treble and bass clefs. Modern editions of music from such periods generally
transpose the original C-clef parts to either treble (female voices), octave
treble (tenors), or bass clef (tenors and basses).

F clef (Bass Clef)


The line or space between the dots in this clef denotes F below middle C, or
approximately 175 Hz. Positioned here, it makes the second line from the
top of the staff F below middle C, and is called a "bass clef." This clef appears
nearly as often as the treble clef, especially in choral music, where it
represents the bass and baritone voices. Middle C is the 1st ledger line
above the stave here. The shape of the clef comes from a stylised upper-
case-F (which used to be written the reverse of the modern F)

Neutral clef
Used for pitchless instruments, such as some of those used for percussion.
Each line can represent a specific percussion instrument within a set, such
as in a drum set. Two different styles of neutral clefs are pictured here. It
may also be drawn with a separate single-line staff for each untuned
percussion instrument.

Octave Clef
Treble and bass clefs can also be modified by octave numbers. An eight or
fifteen above a clef raises the intended pitch range by one or two octaves
respectively. Similarly, an eight or fifteen below a clef lowers the pitch range
by one or two octaves respectively. A treble clef with an eight below is the
most commonly used, typically used instead of a C clef for tenor lines in
choral scores. Even if the eight is not present, tenor parts in the treble clef
are understood to be sung an octave lower than written.
Tablature
For guitars and other plucked instruments it is possible to
notate tablature in place of ordinary notes. In this case, a TAB sign is often
written instead of a clef. The number of lines of the staff is not necessarily
five: one line is used for each string of the instrument (so, for standard 6-
stringed guitars, six lines would be used). Numbers on the lines show on
which fret the string should be played. This TAB sign, like the percussion
clef, is not a clef in the true sense, but rather a symbol employed instead of a
clef. The interstitial spaces on a tablature are never used.

Key signatures
Key signatures define the prevailing key of the music that follows, thus avoiding the use of
accidentals for many notes. If no key signature appears, the key is assumed to be C major/A
minor, but can also signify a neutral key, employing individual accidentals as required for
each note. The key signature examples shown here are described as they would appear on
a treble staff.
Flat key signature
Lowers by a semitone the pitch of notes on the corresponding line or space,
and all octaves thereof, thus defining the prevailing major or minor key.
Different keys are defined by the number of flats in the key signature,
starting with the leftmost, i.e., B♭, and proceeding to the right; for example, if
only the first two flats are used, the key is B♭ major/G minor, and all B's and
E's are "flatted", i.e. lowered to B♭ and E♭.

Sharp key signature


Raises by a semitone the pitch of notes on the corresponding line or space,
and all octaves thereof, thus defining the prevailing major or minor key.
Different keys are defined by the number of sharps in the key signature, also
proceeding from left to right; for example, if only the first four sharps are
used, the key is E major/C♯ minor, and the corresponding pitches are raised.

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