Notation & reading
Ledger line
A ledger line is a short line written above or below the staff to extend it, allowing notes outside the five-line range to be notated.
Each ledger line continues the alternating line-space pattern of the staff. They are readable for two or three lines and become genuinely slow beyond that, which is precisely why clefs exist, switching to tenor clef is faster than counting five ledger lines.
A useful reading habit is to learn a few ledger-line landmarks by sight rather than counting up from the staff every time: the C two ledger lines above the treble staff, the C two below the bass staff, and middle C on its single line between the two.
Related terms
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