Clefs: music symbols explained

9 symbols and terms, each explained in a sentence or two — the same dictionary the free Artform score reader uses when you tap a marking on a real score.

𝄞Treble clefalso called G clef

The curl wraps the line that is G above middle C. The right hand's clef on a piano, and the one most instruments read.

𝄢Bass clefalso called F clef

The two dots sit either side of the line that is F below middle C. The left hand's clef.

Grand staff

Treble and bass braced together as one system, with middle C on a ledger line between them. What piano music is written on.

Middle C

C4: the C nearest the middle of the piano, and the note that sits on a ledger line between the two staves of a grand staff.

Alto clef

The C clef centred on the middle line, so that line is middle C. What a viola reads, and what a great deal of older vocal music is written in.

Tenor clef

The C clef moved up a line, so the fourth line is middle C. Used for the high registers of the cello, bassoon and trombone.

Octave clef

A treble clef with a small 8 under it: sounds an octave lower than written. Tenor voices and guitar read one.

Percussion clef

Two thick vertical strokes instead of a clef. The lines are instruments rather than pitches.

Transposing instrument

An instrument whose written C sounds as another note: a B flat clarinet's C sounds B flat. The part is written for the player's fingers, not for the sounding pitch.

The rest of the dictionary