Lines
| Staff The staff is the fundamental latticework of music notation, upon which symbols are placed. The five stave lines and four intervening spaces correspond to pitches of the diatonic scale – which pitch is meant by a given line or space is defined by the clef. |
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| Ledger or leger lines Used to extend the staff to pitches that fall above or below it. Such ledger lines are placed behind the note heads, and extend a small distance to each side. Multiple ledger lines may be used when necessary to notate pitches even farther above or below the staff. |
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| Bar line Used to separate measures (see time signatures below for an explanation of measures). Bar lines are extended to connect the upper and lower staffs of a grand staff. |
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| Double bar line, Double barline Used to separate two sections of music. Also used at changes in key signature, time signature or major changes in style or tempo. |
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| Bold double bar line, Bold double barline Used to indicate the conclusion of a movement or an entire composition. |
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| Dotted bar line, Dotted barline Subdivides long measures of complex meter into shorter segments for ease of reading, usually according to natural rhythmic subdivisions. |
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| Accolade, brace Connects two or more lines of music that are played simultaneously. Depending on the instruments playing, the brace, or accolade, will vary in designs and styles. |
Read more about this topic: List Of Musical Symbols
Famous quotes containing the word lines:
“When first my lines of heavenly joys made mention,
Such was their luster, they did so excel,
That I sought out quaint words and trim invention;
My thoughts began to burnish, sprout, and swell,
Curling with metaphors a plain intention,
Decking the sense as if it were to sell.”
—George Herbert (1593–1633)
“We stand in the tumult of a festival.
What festival? This loud, disordered mooch?
These hospitaliers? These brute-like guests?
These musicians dubbing at a tragedy,
A-dub, a-dub, which is made up of this:
That there are no lines to speak? There is no play.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Sweet fire the sire of muse, my soul needs this;
I want the one rapture of an inspiration.
O then if in my lagging lines you miss”
—Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844–1889)