Staff (music)

Appropriate music symbols, depending on the intended effect, are placed on the staff according to their corresponding pitch or function.

Unlike a graph, however, the number of semitones represented by a vertical step from a line to an adjacent space depends on the key, and the exact timing of the beginning of each note is not directly proportional to its horizontal position; rather, exact timing is encoded by the musical symbol chosen for each note in addition to the tempo.

[1] In addition to the pronunciations expected from the spellings, both plural forms are also pronounced /stævz/ in American English.

A brace (curly bracket) is used to join multiple staves that represent an instrument, such as a piano, organ, harp, or marimba.

[9] A bracket is an additional vertical line joining staves to show groupings of instruments that function as a unit, such as the string section of an orchestra.

[9][11] When more than one system appears on a page, often two parallel diagonal strokes are placed on the left side of the score to separate them.

During the 9th through 11th centuries a number of systems were developed to specify pitch more precisely, including diastematic neumes whose height on the page corresponded with their absolute pitch level (Longobardian and Beneventan manuscripts from Italy show this technique around the year 1000).

The treatise Musica enchiriadis (c. 900) uses Daseian notation for indicating specific pitches, but the modern use of staff lines is attributed to Guido d'Arezzo (990–1050), whose four-line staff is still used (though without the red and yellow coloring he recommended) in Gregorian chant publications today.