Clef

A clef (from French: clef "key") is a musical symbol used to indicate the pitch of written notes. Placed on one of the lines at the beginning of the stave, it indicates the name and pitch of the notes on that line. This line serves as a reference point by which the names of the notes on any other line or space of the stave may be determined. Only one clef that references a note in a space rather than on a line has ever been used.

There are three types of clef used in modern music notation: F, C, and G. Each type of clef assigns a different reference note to the line (and in rare cases, the space) on which it is placed.

Once one of these clefs has been placed on one of the lines of the stave, the other lines and spaces can be read in relation to it.

The use of three different clefs makes it possible to write music for all instruments and voices, even though they may have very different tessituras (that is, even though some sound much higher or lower than others). This would be difficult to do with only one clef, since the modern stave has only five lines, and the number of pitches that can be represented on the stave, even with ledger lines, is not nearly equal to the number of notes the orchestra can produce. The use of different clefs for various instruments and voices allows each part to be written comfortably on the stave with a minimum of ledger lines. To this end, the G-clef is used for high parts, the C-clef for middle parts, and the F-clef for low parts—with the notable exception of transposing parts, which are written at a different pitch than they sound, often even in a different octave.

Bass

Bass or Basses may refer to:

Fish

Music

Bassé

Bassé is a town in the Bourzanga Department of Bam Province in northern Burkina Faso. It has a population of 2,138.

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Bass note

In music theory, the bass note of a chord or sonority is the lowest note played or notated. If there are multiple voices it is the note played or notated in the lowest voice. (the note furthest in the bass) While the bass note is often the root or fundamental of the chord, it does not have to be, and sometimes one of the other pitches of the chord will be found in the bass. See: inversion (music).

In pre-tonal theory (Early music), root notes were not considered and thus the bass was the most defining note of a sonority. See: thoroughbass. In pandiatonic chords the bass often does not determine the chord, as is always the case with a nonharmonic bass.