The full piano keyboard includes 88 keys, but the number of sounds perceived by the human ear and used in music reaches one hundred. Meanwhile, the staff has only 5 lines. To record all possible musical sounds, there are special signs in musical notation - keys.
The musical keys were invented together with sheet music by the creator of modern notation - Guido d'Arezzo. The idea was simple: a special sign is placed at the beginning of the staff, which indicates the position of a certain sound, which becomes the starting point. All other notes are calculated relative to this "zero mark".
Key salt
Along with the musical notation, there is also an older system of recording music - the letter system. Each note corresponds to a letter of the Latin alphabet, and the outlines of the musical keys are modified letters. In particular, the note G is denoted by the Latin letter G, and it is from this that the G key, better known as the violin clef, originated. Its name is due to the fact that it is in this vein that music is written for the violin, however, not only for her, but also for the flute, oboe, clarinet, female voices, the right hand on the piano, button accordion and accordion.
The curl of the key is on the 2nd ruler of the staff, indicating the position of the G note of the first octave. In France, during the Baroque era, another type of salt key was used, which was written on the first ruler. It was called the French key.
Fa key
The outlines of the F key come from the Latin letter F. Its curl and two dots indicate the position of the F note of the small octave - on the 4th ruler of the staff. In this vein, notes are written for the cello, bassoon and other low instruments, as well as for the bass part in the choir, which is why it is called bass.
Along with the bass clef, there are two more types of fa clef: baritone and bass-profund. In the first case, the fa of a small octave is placed on the third ruler, in the second - on the fifth.
Key up
The C key is a modified Latin letter C and indicates the position of the note up to the 1st octave. There are 5 variants of this key. In the soprano key, the note up to the 1st octave is located on the 1st line, in the mezzo-soprano key - on the 2nd, in the alto key - on the 3rd, in the tenor - on the 4th, in the baritone - on the 5th.
Key modifications
A small figure eight can be added to any key at the top or bottom. This means that all notes should be played respectively one octave higher or lower than they are written. Such keys are used in order to avoid a large number of additional rulers or frequent key changes. For example, one octave higher than the real sound, they write notes for the guitar, alto domra, double bass, one octave lower - for the piccolo flute. Perhaps such a movement is not one, but two octaves, in this case the number 15 is added to the key.
A neutral key is used to record a drum part that does not have a specific pitch. It looks like a long white rectangle or as two lines parallel to each other and perpendicular to the staff, drawn from the 2nd ruler to the 4th. This clef does not indicate the pitch of the notes, it only indicates the stave where the drum part is recorded.
