A note indicates both pitch and rhythm.

Notes are written on a staff. Notes with a higher frequency (shorter wavelength) are written higher on the staff than notes with a lower frequency (longer wavelength). That is, higher notes are placed above lower ones.

A notehead must be written carefully on a staff. A notehead is oval (not round); additionally, it should be neither too large nor too small, and it is tilted slightly upward toward the right.

The stems of notes can point either upward (on the right side of a note) or downward (on the left side of a note). For notes above the middle line, the stem points downward, and for notes below the middle line, stems point upward. Notes on the middle line can point in either direction, depending on the surrounding notes.

Writing seconds always involves displacing one note to the left or right of a stem. The lower note always goes on the left, regardless of whether the stem points up or down.

A clef indicates which pitches are assigned to the lines and spaces on a staff.

Extra lines called ledger lines extend a staff higher or lower.

Western musical notation privileges two musical features: pitch and rhythm. Pitches are notated vertically (on the y-axis), while rhythms are notated horizontally (on the x-axis). Western musical notation is read left-to-right and top-to-bottom, like the page of a book in written English.

Notation of Notes

A note indicates both pitch and rhythm. Each written note consists of a notehead (either empty or filled in) and may also have a stem and a beam or flag (see Rhythmic and Rest Values). Example 1 shows an illustration of noteheads, stems, beams, and flags:

Example 1. Noteheads, stems, beams, and flags.

Staff Notation

A staff (plural "staves") is essential for conveying pitch. A staff consists of five horizontal lines, evenly spaced, and each note is placed on the line or space that corresponds to its pitch (see Clefs below). Example 2 depicts a staff:

Example 2. A staff.

Placing Notes on a Staff

Noteheads on a line should fill in half of each space above and below. Noteheads in a space should just touch the lines above and below. Example 3 shows examples of correct noteheads, both open and filled in, both on lines and in spaces:

Example 3. Correct noteheads, open (white) and filled in (black), both on lines and in spaces.

Noteheads should be oval (not round), and they are tilted slightly upward toward the right. Example 4 shows incorrect noteheads. As you can see, noteheads can be drawn too small, too big, or the wrong shape.

Example 4. Incorrect examples of noteheads.

Stems and Beams

The stems of notes can point either upward (on the right side of a note) or downward (on the left side of a note). For notes above the middle line, the stem points downward, and for notes below the middle line, stems point upward. Notes on the middle line can point in either direction, depending on the surrounding notes. This is shown in Example 5:

Example 5. Correct stemming directions.

Stemming directions and beaming conventions are discussed more in Simple Meter and Time Signatures and Compound Meter and Time Signatures. When hand-drawing stems, their length is equal to four lines of the staff. Beams are about four times thicker than stems.

Drawing Seconds

When notes at the interval of a second (see the Generic Intervals section of The Keyboard and the Grand Staff) occur harmonically, they are on an adjacent line and space of the staff, so one note needs to be displaced to the left or right of the stem. The lower note always goes on the left, regardless of whether the stem points up or down. Example 6 shows the correct way to draw seconds:

Example 6. Three correct seconds.

Seconds should not be stacked on top of one another, nor should the lower note be on the right, as seen in Example 7:

Example 7. Three incorrect seconds.

Drawing seconds in seventh chords is discussed in Seventh Chords.

Clefs

The notes drawn on the lines and spaces of a staff represent pitches. Musicians use spatial metaphors to describe notes placed on a staff: notes appearing toward the top of the staff are said to be “higher” than those toward the bottom, which are said to be “lower.” Higher pitches are produced by sound waves with a shorter wavelength (and consequently a higher frequency); sound waves with a longer wavelength (lower frequency) produce lower pitches. Such spatial metaphors vary with milieu—i.e. across cultures and time periods. For example, for some music theorists in ancient Greece, higher-sounding notes were visually placed below lower-sounding notes.For one example, see André Barbera, The Euclidean Division of the Canon: Greek and Latin Sources. New Critical Texts and Translations on Facing Pages, with an Introduction, Annotations, and Indices Verborum and Nominum et Rerum (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1991), 276–9. As Example 8 demonstrates, this is because these theorists were likely most familiar with string instruments that functioned similarly to the violins, guitars, and harps we know today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0SznGRFHSg

Example 8. Dr. Jacob Tews (Christopher Newport University) explains more about ancient Greek musical notation.

For notes to convey pitch information beyond “higher” and “lower,” the staff on which they appear must include a clef. A clef indicates which pitches are assigned to the lines and spaces on a staff (see also [Reading Clefs](https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/ch