In musical notation, the staff is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces, on which note symbols are placed to indicate their relative pitch. The lines and spaces are numbered from bottom to top; the bottom line is the first line and the top line is the fifth line.

The musical staff can be thought of as a graph of pitch with respect to time; pitches are roughly given by their vertical position on the staff, and notes on the left are played before notes to their right. In both cases, however, the notations are not exactly proportional but are encoded by symbols.

Music on the staff is read from left to right: one note to the right of another means that it is to be played later; how much later depends on the note value of the preceding note, and on the tempo. A time signature indicates the note type receiving one beat and how many of these beats constitute one measure, bar lines groups notes on the staff into measures.

External links

• Musical Staff Quiz
• Dolmetsch Online: Printable PDF files of musical staff (A4 size)
• Audio Graffiti Free Manuscript Paper: Printable PDF files of musical staff (A4 and Letter size; standard, TAB and more; with or without clefs)
• Printable files of musical staff in PDF and PostScript formats provided by Perry Roland of Alderman Library at The University of Virginia

v • d • e Musical notation and Development
Staff	Bar line · Clef · Key signature · Ledger line · Musical mode · Musical scale · Rehearsal letter · Time signature · Transposition · Transposing instrument
Notes	Accidental · Dotted note · Flat · Grace Note · Natural sign · Note value · Rest · Sharp · Slur · Tie
Expression marks	Articulation · Dynamics · Octaves  · Ornaments · Ossia · Tempo
Development	Coda · Development · Exposition · Harmony · Melody · Motif · Recapitulation · Theme