All aspect of life is invariably governed by one principle or the other, or sets of principles. Businesses, professions, love and so on are all aspects of life that have various sets of laws or principles that govern them.

Music as we have stated earlier in STEEMIT MUSIC 100: ROOTS is one most effective aspect of life, and it is non-the-less governed by principles that outline and help one understand the essense of music.

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DEFINITION

MUSIC THEORY is basically concerned with the possibilities, techniques, concepts, practices and/or methods by which musicians make music.
In simpler terms, Music theory is the WHY behind the HOW of music, it is like some formula that help one understand music.

Though music theory is concerned with methods describing how musicians make music, it is thus still just "THEORY". This implies that personal opinion or subjectivity is always the final basis for assessment for creating/making music.

MUSIC THEORY is indeed comprehensive , covering various fundamentals/aspects of music such as; music notation, ear training, dynamics, e.t.c. Despite the comprehensive nature of music, we shall consider in this discuss only bare essentials of music theory.
Therefore, this course centers on exploring basic music theory so thoroughly to ignite the interested student into being a better musician.

• The Staff(Stave)

• Clefs

THE STAFF(STAVE)

The staff(US) or stave(UK) is a set of five horizontal and parallel lines and four spaces on which musical notes, rests, and music symbols are placed. The staff(stave) can be thought of as a music graph on which music is represented.

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PURPOSE AND PROPERTIES OF THE STAFF(STAVE)

1. The lines and spaces on a staff(stave) are counted from bottom-up, that is, the bottom line is generally recognised as line one or the first line, and the top line is regarded as the fifth line or last line.

2. Each line or space on the staff(stave) represents a specific pitch(note) and this corresponds to the type of clef that is placed on the staff(stave). The exception of this property is when the clef on the staff(stave) is Neutral.
   MUSIC NOTES ARE PLACED BY PITCH AND PERCUSSION NOTES ARE PLACED BY INSTRUMENT, REST, AND OTHER SYMBOLS PLACED BY CONVENTION.

3. The pitch of the notes increases or ascends when moving from bottom-up the staff(stave) and decreases or descends otherwise irrespective of the clef on the staff. This is same for percussion instruments(e.g drums) except for when a high pitched instrument(e.g hi-hat) is played with the foot - in this case, it is represented below the staff(stave)

CLEFS

A CLEF is a musical symbol placed at beginning of a staff to indicate the pitch of the note on the staff(stave).
Therefore, the primary aim of a music clef is to establish the pitch of a range of notes that it can play. Clefs make music easy to comprehend.

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In modern music, there are three main clef designs/shapes used for pitched music. But we shall consider four(4) clefs;

• The Treble Clef/ G-Clef

• The Bass Clef/F- clef

• The C-Clef(Alto and Tenor)

• The Neutral/Percussion Clef

The Treble Clef/ G-Clef

The treble clef is a musical symbol placed at the beginning of a staff(stave) and on the second line to indicate the pitch of the which is invariably G. Since the treble clef tell us that the second line from the bottom is G, on any staff, the notes are arranged so that the next letter is always on the next higher line or space. Therefore, the range of notes covered by the treble clef is illustrated below:

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SPACES = F . A . C . E

LINE = E . G . B . D . F = Every Good Boy Does Fine

The Bass Clef/F- clef

The Bass Clef is a musical symbol placed at the beginning of a staff(stave) and on the fourth line to indicate the pitch of the which is invariably F. Since the bass clef tell us that the fourth line from the bottom is F, on any staff, the notes are arranged so that the next letter is always on the next higher line or space. Therefore, the range of notes covered by the bass clef is illustrated below:

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SPACE = A . C . E . G

LINES = G . B . D . F . A = Good Boys Do Fine Always

The C-Clef(Alto and Tenor)

This clef establishes the pitch of C. It is placed on the third line for the alto C-clef and placed on the fourth line for the tenor C-clef.

ALTO C-CLEF
Since the Alto C-clef tell us that the third line from the bottom is C, on any staff, the notes are arranged so that the next letter is always on the next higher line or space. Therefore, the range of notes covered by the Alto C-clef is illustrated below:

SPACE = G . B . D . F

LINES = F . A . C . E . G

TENOR
Since the Tenor C-clef tell us that the fourth line from the bottom is C, on any staff, the notes are arranged so that the next letter is always on the next higher line or space. Therefore, the range of notes covered by the Tenor C-clef is illustrated below:

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SPACE = E . G . B . D

LINES = D . F . A . C . E

The Neutral/Percussion Clef

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This clef shows different instruments on different lines of staff(stave).

Thank you again for joining us again. Please make your comments and ask your question in the comment section.

@fanen
Steemit Music Tutor