Trebel Clef or Treble Clef What is it
The Trebel Clef correctly spelt Treble Clef is the first symbol that appears at the beginning of sheet music
This clef is placed on every line of music showing the notes which will be sung or played by voices and instruments that can achieve higher notes
The Treble Clef is also called the “G clef” because the symbol at the beginning of the staff (a stylized letter “G”) encircles the second line of the staff which happens to be the G string
It’s the most commonly clef used due to the wide range of instruments that use it
It’s also normally the first clef for those studying music theory first learn
Treble Clef Instruments
Instruments that use the Treble Clef (G Clef) are:
The violin, flute, oboe, bagpipe, cor anglais, all clarinets, all saxophones, horn, trumpet, cornet, vibraphone, xylophone, mandolin, recorder
It is also used for the guitar, which sounds an octave lower than written, as well as the euphonium and baritone horn, both of which sound a major ninth lower.
Treble Clef is the upper stave of the grand stave used for harp and keyboard instruments
It is also sometimes used, along with tenor clef, for the highest notes played by bass-clef instruments such as the cello, double bass (which sounds an octave lower), bassoon, and trombone
The viola also sometimes uses treble clef for very high notes
Treble Clef is used for the soprano, mezzo-soprano, alto, contralto and tenor voices.
When sung, a tenor singer will sing the piece an octave lower, and is often written using an octave clef or double-treble clef.
Theory
The Trebel Clef correctly spelt Treble Clef is represented by the following symbol:
**This is only an example, more notes can appear **
History Lesson
Where did the Treble Clef originate from?
No one really knows who invented this useful clef however we may get some idea from the following:
The history of Western musical notation describes an effort toward the development of a simple, symbolic representations of pitch and rhythm
It begins near the end of the 9th century when notation for the Plainsong of the Western Church, better known as Gregorian Chant, was first recorded with “neumes”
These were simple dashes or dots above lyrics that indicated a relative change in pitch
At the end of the 10th century, musical scribes increased the precision of his early notation by introducing a horizontal line to indicate a base pitch
The pitch of this line was indicated by a letter at its start, typically F or C and, as higher range songs become more common, G
The different clefs are designed so most of singers’ notes will fall on the lines or spaces in their range
Neumes were no longer relative only to one another, but to a standard
This was the beginning of the musical staff and hence we had the start of modern western music
Finally
I hope you have found this useful
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