A good many books and 'teach yourself' courses don't go into much detail on the subject of the bass stave,? which is a pity because proper understanding of it will allow you to play accompaniment at a glance from? any sheet music, not just the easy play stuff.? Your ability to be able to read notes at a glance will give you many advantages.
The same alphabetic letters are used on the bass stave as on the treble stave and they follow the same order.? They fall on different lines and spaces though, but this will not be a problem to you once you become accustomed to them.?
The bass stave, just like the treble stave, consists of 5 lines and four spaces.? You know if you are looking at a bass stave because it has a bass clef at the beginning of the stave, as indicated below.
You will remember from your knowledge of the treble stave that the bottom line is? known? as? the? first? line? (lowest) and? the? top line is known as the fifth line (highest)? The bottom space is the first and? lowest and the top space is the fourth and highest.? Just like the treble stave, the lower sounding notes are in the lower part of the stave.
?The Bass Stave
The range of your guitar starts with the 6th string played open which you already know is E, situated in the 3rd space up on the bass stave, so this is really the domain of the bass player. ? As you will mainly concern yourself with the treble stave your bass note E is normally indicated on ledger lines below the treble stave but just in case it is written on the bass stave you now know where to find it.?
If you compare this diagram with the treble stave in lesson 1 you will see that all the letters have simply been moved down.? The bass note G is now on the first line instead of the second line and A is now in the first space instead of the second space.
Whenever you have a stave with the bass clef written at the beginning then the notes are always named like this:
??????????????????????????????????????????????? 1st?? line? is? G. (at the bottom)
??????????????????????????????????????????????? 2nd? line? is? B.
??????????????????????????????????????????????? 3rd?? line? is? D.
??????????????????????????????????????????????? 4th?? line? is? F
The names of the 5 lines making up the stave can be remembered by thinking of the phrase:-? Good Boys Deserve Favor Always.
???????????????????????????????????????????????? 1st? ?space? is A.
??????????????????????????????????????????????? 2nd? space? is C.
??????????????????????????????????????????????? 3rd?? space? is E.
??????????????????????????????????????????????? 4th?? space? is G.
The names of the 4 spaces making up the stave can be remembered by thinking of the phrase:-? All Cats Eat Grass.
After a little thought you will begin to see that reading music on the base stave is quite simple.? Remember never confuse the bass stave with the treble stave.?
The bass stave is indicated by the bass clef which is sometimes called the F clef because it starts on the F line, which is the 4th line in the stave.? (Remember you count lines and spaces from the bottom.)
