Grand staff notes for the piano

The grand staff is the pair of staves used for piano music: a treble staff on top and a bass staff below, joined at the left by a brace and a vertical line so they are read together. Its lines run from G2, the bottom line of the bass staff, to F5, the top line of the treble staff, with middle C (C4) on a ledger line halfway between. The upper staff is normally played by the right hand and the lower staff by the left.

The lit keys on the keyboard above are the five landmarks of the grand staff: G2, the bottom line; F3, the line the bass clef marks; middle C; G4, the line the treble clef marks; and F5, the top line.

The staff diagram covers both staves, G2 up to F5, with middle C on its ledger line between them and the letter name under each note.

How the two staves fit together

Each staff has five lines and four spaces, and the clef at the start of each one fixes its notes. The treble clef makes the bottom line of the upper staff E4; the bass clef makes the top line of the lower staff A3. Between A3 and E4 there are only three natural notes: B3, middle C and D4. They fill the gap between the staves, so the grand staff reads as one continuous ladder of notes from the bottom line to the top.

Middle C sits on the one ledger line in that gap. Whether it hangs below the treble staff or sits above the bass staff, it is the same key, and the staff it is attached to usually tells you which hand plays it. B3 and D4 can also be written on either staff, as a note hanging below or above the ledger line.

Every note from the bottom line to the top line

Reading up the grand staff moves one white key at a time. From the bottom line of the bass staff to the top line of the treble staff there are 21 notes, one for every white key from G2 to F5:

The keyboard diagram covers the same 21 white keys, with the black keys between them, so you can see how far the grand staff reaches on the piano: nearly three octaves, centered on middle C.

A symmetry around middle C

The grand staff is balanced on middle C. The two clefs mark notes the same distance away on either side: F3, a fifth below middle C, and G4, a fifth above it. The outer lines match as well: G2 at the bottom and F5 at the top are each an octave and a fourth from middle C.

For the details of each staff, with ledger lines above and below, see treble clef notes and bass clef notes. The middle C guide shows where that central note is on every size of keyboard.

Which hand reads which staff

Normally the right hand plays the upper staff and the left hand the lower one, which matches the keyboard: higher notes to the right, lower notes to the left. It is a convention, not a law, and printed music tells you when it changes:

• Clef changes. Either staff can switch clef partway through a piece. A left-hand part that climbs high may move into treble clef, and a right-hand part that drops low may move into bass clef.
• Hand marks. When a note on one staff is meant for the other hand, it can be marked R.H. or L.H. in English, m.d. and m.s. in Italian (mano destra, mano sinistra), or m.d. and m.g. in French (main droite, main gauche).
• Crossed hands. Some pieces cross one hand over the other on purpose, and the marks above show which hand goes where.

Fingering numbers printed beside the notes follow the same hands; see piano finger numbers.

Reading both staves at once

Notes that line up vertically across the two staves are played at the same time; the music moves left to right as a single line of time. A common way to learn a piece is to read each hand's part on its own first, then put the hands together. A sharp, flat or natural affects only the staff it is written on, so a sharp in the treble staff does not change the same letter in the bass staff, while the key signature is printed on both staves and applies to both; sharps and flats on the piano explains those rules.

In music for pipe organ with pedals, the grand staff normally has three staves: one for each hand and a third, at the bottom, for the feet. The step-by-step piano lessons on our companion site include a lesson on reading the grand staff.