Musical Language
Senior 1 · Music
Musical Language
Lesson 5 of 5
22 min
In a church or school choir, the basses and tenors sing much lower than the sopranos and altos. On a keyboard, the left hand plays low notes while the right hand plays the tune. Writing those low notes on the treble staff would need a ladder of ledger lines under every note. Instead, music uses a second clef for low sounds, the bass clef, and joins the two staves together when one player or one choir needs both.
The bass clef is also called the F clef. It begins with a dot on line 4, and its two dots sit on either side of that line. It tells you that a note on line 4 is the F just below middle C.
The bass clef is used by bass and tenor voices, the left hand of the keyboard, the bass guitar, and low instruments such as the trombone and tuba.
Worked example
Line 4 is F. Name line 5, two steps higher. Count up the alphabet: F → G (space 4) → A (line 5). So line 5 is A. Now name line 3, two steps below F: F → E (space 3) → D (line 3). Line 3 is D.
From the bottom, the lines of the bass staff are G B D F A and the spaces are A C E G. A sentence helps: for the lines, "Great Bananas Don't Fall Apart"; for the spaces, "All Cows Eat Grass".
The most common mistake is to read the bass staff as if it were the treble staff. Every position has a different name in each clef, so always look at the clef first.
Notice that each bass-clef name is two letters higher than the treble-clef name in the same position: G → B, C → E, F → A. This is a useful check, but learn the bass names on their own as well.
When a treble staff and a bass staff are joined on the left by a curly brace and a line, they form a grand staff (in British English, the great stave). Keyboard music is written on a grand staff: the right hand usually reads the top staff and the left hand the bottom staff. Hymn books print choir music on two staves in the same way: sopranos and altos on the treble staff, tenors and basses on the bass staff.
Middle C belongs to both staves. It sits on the first ledger line below the treble staff and on the first ledger line above the bass staff, and the two notes in red are the very same sound. Reading upwards from the bottom of the bass staff to the top of the treble staff, the steps continue without a gap.
Basses sing the same sol-fa names as everyone else, only lower. With doh = C, the C in space 2 of the bass staff is an octave below middle C, so it is written d, with a comma. The G on line 1 of the bass staff is two octaves below the G on line 2 of the treble staff.
Tip
Look at the clef before you read a single note. Treble clef: its curl wraps round G on line 2. Bass clef: its dots hug F on line 4. Bass lines G B D F A ("Great Bananas Don't Fall Apart"); bass spaces A C E G ("All Cows Eat Grass").
Try each question first, then check the worked solution underneath.
Name the six numbered notes on this bass staff.
Solution: 1 is F (line 4). 2 is C (space 2). 3 is G (line 1). 4 is A (line 5). 5 is E (space 3). 6 is middle C, on the first ledger line above the bass staff.
Which note is on line 3 of the bass staff?
Solution: D. The bass lines from the bottom are G B D F A, so the middle line is D.
A note is in space 1 of the treble staff and another is in space 1 of the bass staff. Name them.
Solution: Treble space 1 is F; bass space 1 is A. Same position, different clef, different name.
Where is middle C written on each staff of a grand staff?
Solution: On the first ledger line below the treble staff, and on the first ledger line above the bass staff.
Which staff of a grand staff does a tenor in a hymn book read, and which does an alto read?
Solution: The tenor reads the bottom (bass) staff; the alto reads the top (treble) staff.
Remember
Sources and credits
The bass clef shape, the notation diagrams, the lesson text, the memory sentences and the practice were written by Ganzaa.
This lesson adapts CC BY-SA material and is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
