Musical Notation
📋 What it is
Notation writes music down — notes on a staff show pitch (up/down) and duration (note shapes).
🗣️ Coach says
Notation is music's writing system. Notes sit on a five-line STAFF: higher on the staff = higher pitch. The note's SHAPE (filled, open, with a stem or flag) tells you how LONG it lasts. Read those two things — height and shape — and you can read music.
🧠 Memory hook
Notation: height on the staff = pitch (up/down); note SHAPE = how long it lasts.
😂 Giggle
Why did the quarter note break up with the whole note?
It needed more rest!
😲 Whoa!
The five-line staff has been used for about a thousand years — a design so good it barely changed.
✅ Quick check: On a musical staff, what does a note's HEIGHT tell you?
Say your answer out loud first — then reveal.
Its pitch — higher on the staff means a higher pitch, lower means a lower pitch.
Vertical position on the staff encodes pitch; note shape encodes duration.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Draw five lines and place a dot high, then low — you just wrote a high note and a low note.