Musical Notation is a notation commonly used in the world. Music is recorded by marking notes of different durations and other symbols on five equally spaced parallel lines. One of the most widely used musical scores.

The earliest birthplace of the staff is Greece, and its history is much earlier than the simplified musical notation in digital form. In ancient Greece, the main form of music was vocal music, and the pronunciation of lyrics was represented by letters such as A, B, C... In the Roman era, another symbol began to be used to represent the pitch of the sound. This notation was called "Neuma", which was the prototype of the staff. (Figure 1-1).

These Newm symbols are clear on and off, sometimes indicating a sound, and often indicating a group of sounds. It can help the singer remember and understand the characteristics of various tunes, but it cannot indicate the length of the sound, nor the Fixed high and low positions, so later generations drew a straight line, wrote the Newm symbol above and below the line, took the line as the center point, fixed the sound as F, and then determined the pitch according to the upper and lower positions. This form is called " One line spectrum."

In the 11th century, the monk Guido placed the Newm symbol on four lines to determine its pitch. This kind of music notation was called "four-line music notation". The starting line spectrum is drawn in different colors, such as the red line representing the F note, and the yellow or green line representing the C note (Figure 1-2). By the 13th century, four-line music notation used all black lines, with a Latin letter written on the front of the line to indicate the absolute pitch of the line. This is the prototype we use today.

Since the four-line Newm score cannot mark the rhythm, the length of each note must be accurately determined. This is the origin of quantitative music. In the 13th century, Cologne first invented the length of black notes in the book "Theorem Song Art" written by Frank, a monk who taught John Frank (Figure 1-3).

In the 15th century, white notes appeared and the types of notes also increased. When the line spectrum develops to this state, it can basically record the high and low positions and length of the sound. In the 16th century, notation began to be divided into sections, and the note heads became round. In the 17th century, the four-line notation was improved into the five-line notation. After 300 years of gradual improvement, it has become the common music notation method in the world today.

The staff was introduced to China, and the earliest written record was the sequel to "Lü Lu Zhengyi" in 1713. The book recorded the staff, scales, roll calls, etc. Staff notation gradually spread and was used in China, and it was promoted with the preaching of Western missionaries and the establishment of new learning after the mid-19th century.

Advantages of staff notation:

Compared with simple music notation, the advantage of staff notation is that the pitch of the sound is clearly displayed visually. For example, those complex harmonies (several tones appearing in one position at the same time) are easy to identify and the vision is very clear; in terms of expressing melody, especially the shape of many high and low tones is clear at a glance.

In addition, friends who study musical instruments all know that the position of the note head of the staff on the five lines corresponds one-to-one with the position of the fingers that determine the pitch of the musical instrument played, played, and blown. It is very convenient for people who learn and play musical instruments to establish conditioned reflexes. Therefore, the most widely used instruments in the world are basically staffs.