The staff is the set of five horizontal lines and four spaces on which musical notes are written. The vertical position of a note head on the staff indicates its pitch once a clef has been supplied.

Ledger lines extend the staff upward or downward when notes fall outside its range. Multiple staves can be joined by braces or brackets to form systems for keyboard music, chamber works, or full scores. The staff provides a clear visual grid that makes complex music readable.

The modern five-line staff evolved from earlier systems that used fewer lines. Its standardization allowed music to be notated with greater precision and to be shared widely. Learning to read notes on the staff quickly and accurately is one of the first tasks of musical literacy.

Even with digital notation tools, the staff remains the fundamental visual framework for written music.