What is Pitch in Music?
5th Grade•40 minutes
Learning Objective
I can describe how highness or lowness relates to musical pitch.
Key Concepts
The five parallel lines that music is written on are called a staff, which operates on two axes: up and down and left to right.
A clef is placed at the beginning of the staff and acts like a reference point, telling you that a particular line or space corresponds to a specific note.
The time signature tells a performer how many beats are in each bar.
Practice Questions
This lesson includes 7 practice questions to reinforce learning.
View questions preview
1. What does the up-and-down axis on a musical staff tell a performer?
2. Explain how the position of a note on the staff relates to its pitch.
3. What is the purpose of a clef in musical notation?
...and 4 more questions
Educational Video
How to read music - Tim Hansen
TED-Ed