Treble clef

How to read it

A clef sets the pitch of the lines and spaces that follow it. With the treble clef, the lines from the bottom are E, G, B, D and F and the spaces F, A, C and E. The staff it marks is called the treble staff.

Also searched as: G clef.

Where the shape comes from

The treble clef is a much-altered letter G, just as the bass clef is an F and the C clef a C. Letters were written at the start of the lines when staff notation began, to fix their pitch. Stainer and Barrett’s dictionary (1898) names Lampadius’s Compendium Musicae of 1537 as the earliest printed book thought to show the G clef in something close to its modern shape.

Where you’ll see it

Richardson’s Elements of Music (1893) lists the violin, flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and trumpet, soprano voices, and the right hand of piano and organ music. Tenor parts in vocal scores are often written in the treble clef too, sung an octave lower than written.

Other positions

The G clef has sat on other lines. Stainer and Barrett record it on the first line in Lully’s and other French scores, where it was called the French violin clef.