Learning the Bass and Treble Clef for Keyboard

In pop, classical, blues, gospel and even rock and roll music, for piano, there are either 2 clefs, a bottom or "bass clef" and a top clef, the "G clef" or "treble clef" or there are 3 clefs.

With pop music or jazz you may have 3 clefs. "You mean I'll need 3 hands to play this?? No, not exactly! Fear not, the tippity-top clef is the vocal line, the next line down is the "treble clef" (right hand) for the piano and the bottom clef is the "bass clef" for the left hand (by the way, occasionally, either hand may play the opposing clef, such as left hand playing the upper high notes.

Question: Why do they often refer to the "treble clef" as the "G clef" and the "bass clef" the "F clef"?

Answer: On the "G clef" the little "squiggle" of the "G clef" goes through the G note line on the staff and conversely, with the "bass clef" the "squiggle, curly-cue goes thru the F note line on the "bass clef".

Question: Are there always 2 or 3 clefs in pop music?

Answer: Nope! in the "Intermediate section" of these 75 free online piano lessons, we learn about "lead sheets" and "lead sheets", a short-hand notation method for music, have only one clef which is the "G clef". When you learn about Fake books, you'll see that the purpose of the "G clef" is to display the single note, melody line. If you're a bass player, then it's going to be instead the "bass clef" and it will show the melody line as bass notes. But for piano and keyboard, we always have to have the "G clef" appearing somewhere.

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