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Music notation glossary · Further signs

Ledger line

a line for notes outside the staff

In the score

Engraved by Verovio 6.3.0-425dd7b

What it means

Short strokes above or below the five lines. Middle C sits on the first ledger line below the treble staff.

Staff

Below the staff the lines stop, but the range of notes does not. Every further note therefore gets its own short stroke — the first one, the next two, the third three. They are as wide as the head and belong to it alone.

Three notes below the staff, with one, two and three ledger lines
Engraved by Verovio 6.3.0-425dd7b

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Every note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.