The Grand Staff for Piano Players

What is a grand staff and why is it important?

The grand staff in music shows musicians information about the notes and rhythms they play in a piece of music. It includes the clef, the key signature, and the time signature of the piece. If decoding notes is like learning the alphabet, the entire grand staff shows the punctuation and guidelines needed to read music. 

On the journey of learning a piece of music, the grand staff functions as a treasure map. Pianists learn to read the grand staff in order to decode musical clues. The key signature tells you what scale to play, and the time signature provides information about the rhythms you’ll encounter. 

What are the parts of a grand staff?

The parts of the grand staff are the treble clef (treble clef), which is the top single staff with a treble clef sign, and the bass clef (bass clef). The brace, a curving line, connects these two staves. Within the grand staff, you’ll find musical information like the key signature and time signature. 

Why do pianists need to read the grand staff?

The grand staff contains all the information a pianist needs to learn to play a piece of music by reading. The grand staff combines the information for high notes, usually played by the right hand, and low notes, usually played by the left hand. It’s a great system for notating pitches as high or low. 

How do you remember the notes of the grand staff?

We recommend memorizing the guide notes of the grand staff and using those to orient yourself. Guide notes will help you navigate and name the space and line notes nearby. Over time, you’ll be able to recognize the notes of the grand staff at a glance. Our Guide to the Grand Staff is a great downloadable resource you can print and keep by your piano as a reference. 

What is the order of flats and sharps on the grand staff?

Memorizing which key signature goes with which scale can speed up your piano sight reading. Another way you can decode which key signature goes with flats or sharps is as follows. In sharp key signatures, look at the sharp farthest to the right, then go up a half step to find the note that names the key. So, one sharp on the F line means a key signature of G. For flat keys, find the second-to-last flat when reading from left to right. In our Guide to Key Signatures, you can learn more about the order of flats and sharps and the circle of fifths.

No sharps or flats – C major or A minor

Sharps:
1 sharp – G major or E minor
2 sharps – D major or B minor
3 sharps – A major or F♯ minor
4 sharps – E major or C♯ minor
5 sharps – B major or G♯ minor 

Flats:
1 flat – F major or D minor
2 flats – B♭ major or G minor
3 flats – E♭ major or C minor
4 flats – A♭ major or F minor
5 flats – D♭ major or B♭minor

Enharmonic pairs:
6 flats or 6 sharps – G♭ major/F♯ major and E♭ minor/D♯ minor
7 flats – C♭ major/A♭ minor – more commonly written as B major/ G♯ minor
7 sharps C♯ major/ A♯ minor – more commonly written as D♭ major/ B♭ minor (5 flats)

What is the difference between a grand staff and a single staff?

A single staff lacks a brace and doesn’t have a second simultaneous line of music. A solo singer or instrument might see their melody line on a single staff. Pianists learn to play on the grand staff because our 88-key instrument spans a wide range. With two staves, we can break apart our music into the left and right hand, and clearly show a large number of notes.

Transcript

Hello and welcome back. I'm Joseph Hoffman.
Today we're learning about something very important.
It's a special tool for writing music called the grand staff.

Let me tell you a true story of how the first staff was invented.
About a thousand years ago there were men called monks,
who lived together in a place called a monastery
that kind of looks like a small castle.
These monks were religious people.
They read the Bible.
They got together every three hours to sing and to pray.
They knew hundreds of different songs which we call chants,
so many chants in fact that the monks started to realize
it was getting hard to remember them all.
So they invented a way to draw the notes
so they could remember and easily share with others
the hundreds of chants that they knew.
The system they invented is still in use today,
and it's what we use to draw music.

Let me show you what it looks like. This is a staff.
It's what the monks ...