Tag: Ledger Lines

B7. How To Notate Very High And Very Low Notes

This post is one of a 2-part series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here. Please feel welcome to make a comment or ask a question.

Note: This lesson looks at how very high and very low notes are written in music notation. When note pitches are written as text, their exact pitch is indicated by octave numbers. For more on text notation and octave numbering, including some examples and exercises, please visit Text Notation: Pitch And Octave Numbering.

Pitch Ranges Of Instruments

The piano keyboard spans over seven octaves, yet the great stave, the treble clef and bass clef combined, only covers about four octaves, even if we use a couple of ledger lines.

Most instruments only read one stave, yet the issue is the same. Treble instruments often have an extended range of high notes, well above the top of the treble clef. Many bass instruments have a lower range which extends well below the bottom of the bass clef. (For more on pitch ranges of different instruments, please visit Pitch Ranges).

Sure, it’s possible to use more ledger lines to increase the range, but lots of ledger lines are hard to read and take up a lot of space outside the stave. It looks even scarier when there’s a whole passage of notes with several ledger lines.

Octave Signs

When there are several very high notes on the treble clef, we can write them one octave lower and add an octave sign above the first note, followed by a dotted line which extends over the affected passage. A small bar at the end of the dotted line indicates the end of the octave sign.

For very low notes on the bass clef, we write the passage one octave higher. The octave sign, dotted line and bar appear below the affected notes.

Note:

  • The exact point at which you start and finish an octave sign is up to the writer: it’s okay to have some notes with a couple of ledger lines.
  • Octave signs can start and finish anywhere in a bar.
  • Octave signs are seldom used for a single note. They work best when covering several notes or more.

8va and 8vb extend the range of the great stave from over 4 octaves to over 6; even more when combined with the use of a couple of extra ledger lines.

High Octave, Low Octave

Notice a subtle difference in the two signs: the octave up sign is 8va and the octave down sign is 8vb.

  • 8va stands for ottava alta which is Italian for a high octave
  • 8vb stands for ottava bassa, meaning a low octave

I think of these as:

  • 8va is an octave above what’s written
  • 8vb is an octave below what’s written

Alternatively, you can just write 8 in either case.

Need to go even higher or lower? You can use the 2-octave up or 2-octave down sign.

  • 15ma means 2 octaves up
  • 15mb means 2 octaves down

If you wondering why the sign for 2 octaves is 15 rather than 16, it’s because, when counting intervals between one and two octaves, one letter is counted twice. For more on large interval names, please visit How To Name Intervals Larger Than 1 Octave.

What if we want to write very high notes in the bass clef?

This is less common, as bass instruments tend to have a limited treble range, just as treble instruments tend to have a limited bass range. However, for instruments with an extended range such as synthesisers, both octave signs can be used in either clef.

The great stave is considered as a single stave, so in piano music, 8va is only used on the treble clef and 8vb only on the bass clef.

Clef Changes

Another method of changing the displayed pitch of notes is to temporarily change clefs. Like octave signs, these are best used for passages of several notes or more.

Admittedly, this approach suits keyboard players best, as they are well versed in reading both treble and bass clefs. For readers of a single clef, octave below signs may be preferable.

Changing Clefs

In the bass clef, switch to the treble clef for very high notes. The bass clef stays in effect until the next treble clef. No dotted line is needed.

Like octave signs, clef changes can occur anywhere in a bar.

In the treble clef you can switch to the bass clef for very low notes.

Try These…

The exercises below involve both the treble and bass clef. If you only read one or the other, the illustration at the top of the post may help…

Ledger lines involve careful counting. These exercises are good examples of how octave signs and clef changes make reading easier.

Note: The “answers” supplied at the end of this post are not the only option of where to start and finish the octave signs or clef changes. As stated earlier, this is a subjective choice: a few ledger lines are acceptable in standard music notation.

A) Rewrite the following passages using octave signs

B) Rewrite the following passages using either octave signs or temporary clefs

Answers at the end of this post.

If you found this post helpful, please feel welcome to like, share or leave a comment. If you have any questions, leave them as a comment and I’ll respond as soon as I can. To stay up to date with new posts, please subscribe.

NEXT LESSON: B8. Time Signatures 2: Compound Time

PART 2 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents

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Answers to Try These…

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2. Notes on a Stave: Pitch

This post is one of a 2-part series of free basic music theory lessons on my blog, musictheoryde-mystified.com. You can see the complete list here. Please feel welcome to make a comment or ask a question.

In 1. Note Names, Semitones and Octaves we saw how the notes are named and how far apart they are in pitch. Now let’s look at how they are represented in music notation.

Notes

A note symbol can have up to 3 parts: notehead, stem and tail.

Parts of a Note

The note’s pitch is indicated by the notehead’s position on a stave.

A notehead can be solid, as above, or hollow but this doesn’t alter its pitch. Hollow noteheads are used to indicate longer notes. Tails are only used for short notes.

You can read more on note length in 5. How Long Is A Note? Note Values 1.

Staves

A stave is a set of 5 lines on which musical notes can be written. The pitch of a note is indicated by the notehead’s vertical position on the stave. The higher the notehead, the higher the pitch.

The note can either sit on a line or between lines (see Notes on a stave, below). Each position represents a letter. Flats and sharps don’t alter this position: A flat, A natural and A sharp all have the same position on a stave. The flat or sharp is indicated by a b or # sign preceding the note.

NOTE: My post is about standard music notation. For certain instruments and genres there are special staves with less or more lines. Different types of noteheads can also be used.

Clefs

A clef tells us which note position represents each letter as well as at which octave. This allows us to adjust the usable part of the stave to fit the range of various instruments.

The most common clefs are the treble clef, also known as the G clef, and the bass clef, also called the F clef.

  • The curl in the treble clef centres on the G above middle C
  • The two dots of the bass clef surround the note F below middle C
Treble and Bass Clef

Various other clefs exist for specific instruments. Even the guitar has a different clef, the tenor clef, which looks like a treble clef but with an “8” attached to the lowest point. The notes look the same as the treble clef but sound an octave lower to suit the guitar’s normal range.

Notes on a stave

Here are the naturals for 2 octaves, starting in the bass clef then continuing in the treble clef.

C major Piano Stave

Note that there is a curly bracket at the left which joins the two staves. This indicates that the staves are used together, as one larger stave, known as the great stave or grand staff. The great stave is useful for keyboard instruments such as the piano, as piano’s range is much too large to be represented on one stave. Also, a pianist’s left hand typically plays bass notes and the right hand plays treble notes.

Stem Direction

The stem goes down from the notehead for higher pitches and up for lower notes.

  • When the notehead sits on or above the middle line of the stave, the stem is on the left side of the notehead and goes downwards.
  • when the notehead sits below the middle line of the stave, the stem is on the right side of the notehead and goes upwards.

Ledger lines

Middle C is actually one line above the stave on the bass clef, It’s also one line below the stave on the treble clef. A short line called a ledger line is drawn to indicate this.

Ledger lines can be used to extend the range you can write on a stave, both above and below the stave. Many instruments have a range larger than what fits within a stave.

Try These…

1 Write down the note names of the following notes:

2 On some manuscript paper, write a treble clef on one stave and a bass clef on the stave below it. Now write the following notes on each stave. Use ledger lines when needed:

  • G on the lower part of the stave
  • C in the stave
  • A at or above the top of the stave
  • D at or below the bottom of the stave
  • C above the stave
  • G below the stave
  • E on the upper part of the stave
  • F at or below the bottom of the stave

Answers at the bottom of this post.

Please feel welcome to like, comment or to share this post. If you have any questions, pleased leave them as a comment and I will respond as soon as I can. If you enjoy my posts and would like to be kept up to date, please subscribe.

Graphics taken from The Tiny Music Theory Book, a short, easy to read guide to the essentials of music theory and notation, available here.

NEXT LESSON: 3. Beats, Tempo and Timing

PART 1 CONTENTS: Basic Music Theory Course Contents

Answers to Try These…