Staff
The staff (or stave) is a set of five horizontal lines with four spaces between them, on which the notes are written. The higher a note sits on the staff, the higher it sounds.
Each line and each space stands for one note, one white key. A note on a line has the line through its middle; a note in a space lies between two lines. Each step up, from a line to a space or from a space to a line, is the next white key to the right. The lines are counted from the bottom: the first is the lowest, the fifth the highest.
Which notes the lines stand for is set by the clef at the start of the staff. With a treble clef the lines, from the bottom, are E, G, B, D, F and the spaces F, A, C, E. With a bass clef the lines are G, B, D, F, A and the spaces A, C, E, G. Piano music writes both staves together as the grand staff.
Notes that do not fit on the staff are written on ledger lines above or below it. Middle C sits on the ledger line below the treble staff.
Where it is taught: the studio’s interactive textbook, chapter 1, “The keyboard and your first notes”.