The Music Staff

Fun facts about the music staff:

• The modern music staff is made up of five lines and four spaces
  

• The music staff was originally created to help singers remember melodies of Gregorian chants in medieval Europe
  

• The first recorded use of the music staff dates back to the 11th century, when the Italian monk Guido d’Arezzo created a system of lines and spaces to represent different pitches
  

• The different notes on the music staff are represented by different shapes:
  

• The position of a note on the music staff determines its pitch. Higher notes are placed on higher lines or spaces on the staff, while lower notes are placed on lower lines or spaces
  

• The use of ledger lines allows notes to be written above or below the five lines of the music staff. Ledger lines are small lines added above or below the staff to indicate higher or lower pitches respectively