# Music Notation: Three line stave? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 21, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-notation-three-line-stave/225485 "2004-01-21T17:48:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-notation-three-line-stave/225485/1 "2004-01-21T17:48:57Z")
I posted a question/comment over in the thread on time signatures, but it appears to have got lost in the arcane discussion of 2/10 time over there, so I’ll re-post it as a new thread. I recently came across a reproduction of an old book of piobaireachd for the pipes. (Piobaireachd, or ceol mor, is the “great music”, the classic bagpipe music.) The piobaireachds in this book were written on a 3-bar stave, instead of the standard 5-bar stave, and entirely without time signatures. Piobaireachd tends to be heavily ornamented, and the emphasis is more on the phrasing and expression than strict adherence to timing, so I wasn’t that surprised by the absence of a time signature. Are there any other instruments that have their own notation systems? Is this three line stave a survival from an older form of notation (e.g. - monastic chant) or just an adaptation that pipers evolved on their own? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-notation-three-line-stave/225485/2 "2004-01-21T17:59:16Z")
Acckk! Just realised there’s a typo - should have been “…written on a 3- **line** stave, instead of the standard 5- **line** stave”. No wonder no-one commented - those would be exceptionally short pibrochs! (Piper wanders away, shamefacedly muttering “bars go up & down, lines go sideways; bars go up & down, lines go sideways; bars go up & down…”) ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-notation-three-line-stave/225485/3 "2004-01-21T18:27:30Z")
Guitars and the like often use tablature (basically a pictogram of where to put one’s fingers). Percussion instruments of indefinite pitch are usually noted on a single line, though sometimes a few a grouped together on a single 5-line staff. Can’t think of any other Western instruments that use anything but standard staves (ignoring, of course, the avant-garde fringe). Great source for this and other technical music matters (including things like tenth notes and oddball meters) is Gardner Read’s _Musical Notation_, which is still in print. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-notation-three-line-stave/225485/4 "2004-01-21T19:57:01Z")
Gregorian Chant was written on a four line stave, and that was the way I was taught to read it when I took a course a few years back. It also has no time signature, variable note values, and a lot of ornamentation. ---
**Author:** ![dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorkusmalorkusmafia/32/7266_2.png) [@dorkusmalorkusmafia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorkusmalorkusmafia)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-notation-three-line-stave/225485/5 "2004-01-21T20:58:10Z")
Ancient music and western folk tradition music isn’t necessarily notated the same way modern music is. Gregorian chant typically only had 4 lines on the staff. I have seen some limited ranged instruments (7th-9th) have music on 3 line staves before but it is pretty uncommon. I believe that most bagpipes can play 9 notes. This would pretty much fit on three lines with spaces and a leger line above or below. It’s confusing at first but you get used to it. Other limited ranged instruments like temple blocks, brake drums, and other pitched but indefinately tuned percussion instruments typically only have as many lines as they need. I will only speak of temple blocks since I have written for them before. I used a set of 5 temple blocks and wrote the music out on a 3 line staff to not be superfluous. The percussionist had no problem reading it as they often get parts written out on single or double lines denoting which instrument to play. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-notation-three-line-stave/225485/6 "2004-01-22T00:32:40Z")
Transcriptions of Indonesian gamalan music make use of various 3, 4 and 5 line systems. 5 lines tends to be the limit for realistic use as musical notation…once you venture into 6 or 7 lines, you very quickly find that the eye cannot percieve the distances between so many lines correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Dragonblink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Dragonblink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dragonblink)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-notation-three-line-stave/225485/7 "2004-01-22T01:55:55Z")
Music written for the Appalacian dulcimer (as opposed to the hammered dulcimer) tends to have three lines, one for each string (or on four-stringed dulcimers, one for the two lowest strings). Most of what I saw when I was playing said species of dulcimer had the number of the fret written on the line, where as the lengths of the notes were represented underneath.