LECTURE: CLEFS

FORUM: Catholic Musicians Forum, Nigeria.

RESOURCE PERSON: MAESTRO INNOCENT OKECHUKWU

DATE: 15Th July, 2019.

Innocent:

Ok maestros…

Will be taking us on the topic today CLEF.

A Musical clef is a symbol place at the immediate left hand end of a staff. This helps us to identify the
various pitches written on the staff.

This is to say, one can not name pitches on the staff without the aid of a musical clef. In fact, musical clef
tells us the actual letter names of notes written on the staff.

If I tell you to name these notes on the Staff, the first question you should ask me is… “what Clef is it
on”? Because with this alone,, it is nearly impossible to tell me the notes.

How about after telling me the notes are E,A,C,B and G….and I quickly add a Bass clef to it?

This means you have answered wrongly. Because with a Bass or F clef at the beginning means, the notes
are G,C,E,D and A
Types of Clefs

We have 4 four main types of clefs which are..

G clef or Trebble clef

C clef or Alto clef

C clef or Tenor clef

F clef or Bass clef

Out of these, the most common ones are G clef or Treble and F clef or Bass clef.

This is a sample and symbol of G Clef or Trebble Clef. Because you have known your G position, you can
easily get other notes from the lines and spaces

You see, with the help of G, we can locate other notes with ease. That is what Clef helps us to achieve.
😊

So now…in the key of Gmajor, once you trace you doh, you are good to go.

NB:

Gclef is not the same with key G major oo. I only gave an example with G major
Alto clef or C clef

The alto clef is one of the many C clefs and is named as such Because its center indicates middle C.

The Alto clef’s center is placed on directly in the middle of the staff, designating the third line from the
bottom to middle C.

This clef is not so common in vocal score but very common in instrumental scores especially viola.

This is sample or symbol of Alto Clef or C Clef. The middle is C, so from there you trace other notes

This is sample or symbol of Alto Clef or C Clef. The middle is C, so from there you trace other notes

This is an example of an open score…written in both Treble and Alto Clefs

You notice they sound alike but the positions are different Because they operate in different clefs.
The Tenor Clef

The Tenor clef is another type of C clef. However, its center is on the fourth line from the bottom. So
middle C is moved up a third from where it was on the Alto clef.

This clef is also common in instrumental music than vocal scores.

This is sample or symbol of Tenor Clef. The position of the letter C is on the 4th line as against the Alto
Clef which has its C, on the 3rd line.

From there, you can derive other letters.

The Tenor clef is usually used for Tenor part in SATB writing.

If a piece is on C mjor, the doh in treble clef will be on the 3rd space C5, the doh for Alto will be on the
3rd line and the doh, for Tenor will be on the 4th line.

All you need to do is, find out what clef you are in, trace the tonic and boom...you sing or play although
with ease.
The Bass or Fclef

This is also common to many of us here.

It wraps around the highest Fnote F3, the F below the middle C on the bass clef.

Both Bass and Baritone voice parts are notated on bass clef, though the tenor voice can also be notated
on Bass clef in case of Closed score writing.

This is sample or symbol of Bass or F Clef. Notice that the fourth line is well guarded with two dots. This
shows how important the 4th line is. From there comes the name, F Clef.

From the fourth line F, you can now trace every other notes.
This is the sample of an open score in various clefs.

There is one last Clef I will want to introduce to us aswell. It's called *Neutral clef*

The Neutral clef is one worth mentioning and is also known as the percussion clef. This clef indicates
that the lines and spaces of the staff are each assigned to a percussion instrument with no precise pitch.

Just like other clefs, the Neutral clef can be identified on the staff by this symbol.

This is how the Neutral clef looks. Those who notate our indigenous musical instruments will know what
I am talking about.

With this, I’d like to draw the curtain here.

I welcome your contributions/inputs and questions.

Thank you all for this honor and privilege. 🙏🏻

Questions:

1. Thank you for this detailed lecture Mr. Innocent. God bless and increase you. I have a question
pls. Just heard about the Neutral clef today, how do u notate it?

Ans:

Thank you brother.

About the Neutral clef..you notate same way you notate for others..but no various pitches.

The rhythm is more important part of the Neutral clef.

Let’s say you are notating for a pot drum, just imagine the way you want the pot to sound.. do you go
ahead and beat pot in semiquavers? No, pot acts like a pulse indicator. So it comes around at intervals.

2. So basically, neutral clef works for unpitched instruments namely percussive rhythm-based
instruments?!

Innocent Okechukwu, correct me if I am wrong Bros.

Instruments like woodblock (claves), hand claps etc.

Ans: Exactly.

3. But, bro..How about this kind of kind in chants: 👇🏻

Chukwuebuka to Q3:

Gregorian chants have their own separate methods of interpretation.

The Gregorian chants have two types of clefs;

The ‘Doh’ clef

The ‘Fah’ clef

Innocent to Q3:

This type came from the medieval period..when Neumes were used.

Plain chants are not in four parts writing and don’t use harmony except in organum

Questioner 3 added:

I’ve encountered situations where two different persons will transcribe such music in two different
ways: same sounds but different notes

e.g fah-key and doh-key respectively…

Could you please, clarify me.

Chukwuebuka:

I understand the confusion…

This is due to the church modes and their sound understanding.

Innocent:

We only have two clefs for plain chants…Fah clef and doh Clef

Chukwuebuka:

Modern musicians who try to interpret church modes using scale theory are the ones who try to
“quantize” or “justify” the modes to suit scale keys.
From this picture I posted, make a reference to the modern musicians attempt to approach modal
interpretation with scalar sounds
More on Gregorian Chant Scale
Jude Nwankwo:

In addition to the lecture on clef, as given by Innocent Okechukwu

The C clef can also be use in further ways depending on the line (of the staff) where the center of the
clef rests.

When it rests on the first line of the staff, it is the soprano clef

When it rests on the second line of the staff, it is the mezzo-soprano soprano clef

Innocent has already discussed the third line - alto Clef and fourth line - tenor Clef.

Meanwhile, you hardly come across scores that uses the soprano and mezzo-soprano clefs. However, in
case you come across them, then you understand what they mean.

Hope this makes some sense.

Questions:

4. Invariably, the C clef takes care of all voice within the treble range. Just the position makes the
difference. Right?

Julius Odia:

Thanks to todays facilitator Maestro Innocent and by extension Chukwuebuka

. …….if I have their permission ………..

I will say the following ……….

The C clef is an important clef in orchestral music. It’s used for certain instruments including the viola,
cello, bassoon, and more. It was also commonly used in older vocal scores.

It isn’t any harder than learning F or G clef; the process of learning to read a new clef is always exactly
the same. While C clef is not as common as the F and G clefs that we have covered in the previous
lessons, it’s still very useful in many areas of music. It is definitely something worthwhile if you’re
interested in taking your music to the next level.
Design:

The design of a C clef is a thick vertical bar, followed by a thin bar just to the right. Finally, a sort of
elaborate, curly design is added to the right of that LIKE INNOCENT DREW……BUT TO THE TCL
MEMBERS IT’S BEST WRITTEN AS THE “IK” CLEF

The focus of the design is the center of the clef symbol . Whichever line cuts through the center of the
clef symbol is the note middle C (C4). That’s why it’s called the C Clef.

Compared to the other clefs, you may find C clef slightly more challenging to learn to draw, especially
the curly part of the design. The best way to learn is to simply try copying it as best you can, several
times, until you get the hang of it. Keep in mind that handwritten symbols don’t have to be perfect. As
long as it’s easy to identify as a C clef, it’s probably good enough.

Positions:

In older music, up to 5 different positions of the C clef were used.

The main purpose of these clefs was for vocal music. Each new position fit the range of a certain type of
voice. This is also reflected by the names of the clefs, with each position corresponding to a specific
voice type.

Three of these 5 positions are no longer in common use. Instead, all vocal music is usually written on
either treble or bass clef. Compared with using C clefs, this results in more ledger lines, but at least we
have fewer clefs to learn!

Let’s take a look at the 5 possible positions of the C clef:

Soprano Clef:

The soprano clef is a specific position of the C clef that features C4 on the lowest line of the staff:

In older music, it was used to write vocal parts for soprano, which is a high women’s or child’s voice
(soprano is the highest voice type). The vocal range of a soprano voice is usually from around C4 up to
G5, or higher.

The placement of the clef makes the area of the staff coincide almost perfectly with the range of the
soprano. Practically every note written for a soprano will stay inside the staff, without having to resort
to ledger lines. This was the advantage that the soprano clef provided.

Soprano clef was sometimes used for keyboard music as well.

Mezzo-soprano Clef:

Next comes mezzo-soprano, which is a medium female voice type. The normal range of a mezzo-
soprano is from around A3 up to A5.
The mezzo-soprano clef places the center of the design on the 2nd lowest line of the staff (one line above
soprano clef):

This places A3 on the lowest staff line, which again avoiding ledger lines as much as possible by adjusting
the main staff area to the mezzo-soprano range.

Just like soprano clef, mezzo-soprano clef is no longer in use, but it still exists in older vocal scores.

Alto Clef:

Alto clef is one of the two C clefs that’s still in use nowadays. We’ll learn about it in much more detail in
the next lesson.

The alto clef features middle C on the center line of the staff:

Just like the other positions, in the past it was used in vocal music, often for female vocal parts that were
sung by contraltos (lowest female voice type) or else mezzo-sopranos. It’s also very well placed for any
instruments that have a medium range.

Nowadays it’s best known for its use in writing for viola. In fact, some even refer to it as “viola clef”.

Tenor Clef:

Tenor clef is the other C clef still in use in contemporary music, and we will discuss it in a lot more detail
in a later lesson.

Featuring a C clef on the 2nd highest line, it was used in vocal music for a tenor, which is a medium-high
male voice type:

Baritone Clef:

The fifth and final position is the baritone clef, which is centered on the top line of the staff:

The baritone clef was sometimes used for baritone vocal parts. Baritone is a male voice type somewhere
between tenor and bass.

However, you may have noticed something interesting – baritone clef is actually identical to another clef
that we learned about before, the F baritone clef. Both clefs have C4 on the top line of the staff, and F3
on the middle line; in fact, all the notes are exactly the same:

For this reason, this particular C clef was not actually used very often, since there was already another
clef that provided the exact same function.
Practical Use

Even though 3 out of 5 of these clefs are obsolete (soprano, mezzo-soprano, and baritone), there are
situations in which we might still use them. For example, if we wanted to read an old vocal score, or
recreate a score in the style of older music:

Here’s how that same setup would look in a modern vocal score (notice which clefs are used for each
voice type):

The main uses of the C clef nowadays are the positions of the alto and tenor clefs, and we will look at
both of them in much greater detail in the next two lessons.

…….

So in summary, the C clef can be used to indicate in order of range and timbre :

Soprano

Mezzo

Alto

Tenor

Baritone

Beginning from line 1 to 5 at the bottom to the top Respectively

………

Thanks

Please, I can’t draw the clef now. …I’ll just call it the “ ik” clef and position the k on the required line

..I’m on the Lagos notorious traffic currently

Benafa Zitu:

In addition, you may come across a treble clef with the figure 8 below or above. That is a sub octave
clef.

In performance, the one with the figure below sounds an octave lower, and vice versa for the one above
sub sopranino clef.

If you perform choral works by Handel and other greats, you will often see this clef. However, many
persons do not take note.

As an accompanist playing the notes of the part that uses that clef, note that you should play an octave
above or below, as the case may be.