Staff paper

Author: Ning Xi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-05-01
Features: The five parallel horizontal lines used to record musical notes are called the staff. The five lines and the spaces formed by the five lines are counted from bottom to top. If a musical piece is written on multiple lines of staff, these multiple lines of staff need to be connected by a system of braces. The system of braces consists of two parts: the brace line (a vertical line connecting multiple lines of staff) and the brace (brackets connecting multiple lines of staff). The braces are divided into two types: floral and straight. Floral braces are used for instruments such as piano, organ, accordion, harp, hammered dulcimer, and pipa. Straight braces are used for ensemble, choir, and orchestra notation. In full scores, straight braces are used to connect instruments of the same type, dividing them into complete or incomplete instrumental groups. Sometimes, auxiliary braces (either floral or straight) are added outside the straight braces to connect instruments of the same type. In full scores, if a solo vocal or instrumental part consists of only one or two lines of staff, only one brace line is drawn on the left side, without braces. To mark notes that are too high or too low, many short lines are added above or below the staff. These short lines are called ledger lines, with those above the staff called upper ledger lines and those below the staff called lower ledger lines. The spaces created by ledger lines are called ledger spaces, with those above the staff called upper ledger spaces and those below the staff called lower ledger spaces. The counting method for ledger lines and ledger spaces is as follows: upper ledger lines and upper ledger spaces are counted from bottom to top, while lower ledger lines and lower ledger spaces are counted from top to bottom.