Learn sheet music – Clefs
Usually on the sheet music, the clef is used to let you know the name of the musical notes, their height and which musical instruments are best suited to follow the music that follows. A bass clef will be used for trombones, cellos etc. As you maybe yet know, the ocarina comes in a large variety of ranges and pitches. There may be the Piccolo, the Soprano, the Alto, the Tenor, the Bass, the Contrabass etc.
Instead of writing on the sheet music a huge amount of ledger lines either on top or under the staff, you can use different kinds of clefs which will make the reading of the sheet music a lot easier.
There are 7 different clefs that together forms the setticlavio (sette chiavi, seven clefs) which was used to write orchestra sheet music. In the list that follows, are written some of the most common clefs that you will may see around while searching songs to play with your ocarina.
As you may notice, in the sheet music is reported a musical note. That musical note is always the same for every image, it is C (or Do). It has the same pitch in every image even if it's written at different heights. This will make you understand how much different the sheet music can be depending on the clef used.
Treble or G clef
The treble is commonly used to read the musical instruments like the Flute, the Guitar, the Koto, the Violin etc. This is the one that you will see around the most.
In the case of the ocarina in general, it tells that this will perform the main part of a piece of music.
The curl of the tail tip lays on the G note. This is the reason why it is also called G clef.
Contralto (Alto) or C clef
Contralto is usually used for instruments like the Mandola, the Viola etc. The third and center line of the staff is C here. This is why it is also called C clef. As you have may yet noticed, all the musical notes are written one tone lower than how they are usually written using the Treble. At that heigh using the Treble, you will have B, instead using the Contralto this is a C.
Mezzosoprano clef
It is almost the same as the Contralto, but this time the C lays on the second line of the staff. If you compare this with the Treble, at that heigh you will find G, instead using the Mezzosoprano you find a C.
Bass or F clef
This is used for low pitched instruments like the Bassoon, the Cello, the Trombone etc.
In the case of the ocarina, it is used for the Bass ocarina. The curl of the tail tip lays on the F note and this is also why it is called F clef.
Less often you can find the 8va clef, which rispectively will be:
G 8va clef
There are several variations of the Treble, one of them is the 8va. It is not often used in ocarina sheet music.
As you have may noticed, it is a Treble with a tiny 8 on top.
By using this clef you will make clear that all the musical notes that follow are one octave higher than the normal musical notes of the Treble. So this will be perfect to use when you have to write an entire sheet music for a Soprano or Piccolo ocarina.
Bass 8va clef
This works like the Treble 8va clef. The Bass 8va is the same as writing the notes using the Bass, but all the musical notes are one octave higher.
There are some other clefs and variations like the TAB signature and the french clef, but probably you will never see them used for ocarina. If you want to see all of them just ask me to and I will upload them.
Now that you know the different clefs you can either see how to draw them or go back at the Page architecture, else continue with the musical notes and jump at the values of notes and pauses tutorial.
You can also use the Learn sheet music – guide list to travel through the whole tutorial.
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