Apple GarageBand 2.0 - Manual (Page 59)

Chapter 9 Working In Notation View 59
Each rest shown below is half as long as the rest to its left (from left to right, the rests
are half rest, quarter rest, eighth rest, and sixteenth rest).
• Staves: The set of five horizontal lines on which the notes appear is called a staff (the
plural is staves). The lines of the staff let you see the pitch of the notes from high to
low, like a grid. In notation view, GarageBand always shows two staves, similar to
piano notation. This shows a range of three octaves with middle C in the center
(between the two staves). Most instruments and voices except the lowest bass
instruments fall in this range.
• Clefs: The symbol at the left edge of each staff is called a clef. Clefs indicate the range
of notes the lines of the staff display. The staves in notation view use the two most
common clefs, the treble and bass clef.
• Key signs: If the song is in a key other than C, the sharps or flats in the key appear
between the clef and the time signature. Sharps are raised a semitone above the
natural note (so, for instance, C# is a semitone higher than C), and flats are lowered a
semitone (so Bb is a semitone lower than B). The symbols for sharps and flats are
shown below, followed by the ‘natural’ symbol that cancels a sharp or flat.
• Bar lines: The vertical lines extending through both staves show the beginning of
each measure (measures are also called bars).
In addition to standard music notation symbols, notation view includes the following
features to make working easier:
• Duration bars: In addition to the musical note itself, each note has a duration bar that
graphically displays the note’s duration (the amount of time the note lasts).