What musician reads using the "D-Clef"?

[Mark Wilson]

Does anyone know?

It's the same as a Bass Clef, but as opposed to it being an F-Clef, it's a D-Clef.

I can't find out what musician would read that.

Anyone care to give an explanation on the lesser known clefs?


-Mark

[Peter Squire]

From Wikipedia.

One more use of the clefs is training in sight reading: the ability to read in any clef is useful for being able to transpose on sight (see sight transposition), although in that case the tessitura implied by the given clef must be ignored. It is then only necessary to use 7 clefs, so that any written note can take any of the 7 different names (A, B, C, D, E, F, G). Students in French and Belgian conservatories and music schools, amongst others, are thoroughly drilled in this kind of exercise and solfeggios meant for use in those institutions are about the only scores where one will find nowadays a 1st line or 2nd line C clef or a 3rd line F clef. For some unclear reason, the 3rd line F clef (the baritone clef) is preferred in the French and Belgian pedagogical tradition to the equivalent 5th line C clef. This may have something to do with the fact that very early medieval scores had only 4 line staffs, hence possibly the avoidance in some particularly traditionalist circles to write a clef on the 5th line, though is arguably more likely due to the visual impact of the fact that the 3rd line F clef is contained entirely within the staff whilst half of the 5th line C clef protrudes above it.


...sorry if that doesn't help matters, Mark, I'm not sure that I understand what it means myself....

[Aaron Saunders]

...D clef?

I don't understand. Do you mean tenor/alto clefs? Those aren't used much anymore, but IIRC, instruments that "fall between" bass and treble clef (viola, for instance) read it.

IMO, it's also perfect for notating for tenor (ADGC) bass.

[Bruce Lindfield]

From : http://www.arpegemusic.com/manual/EN290.htm




"The first is the treble clef. It determines the position of the G note on the second line. It is sometimes called G clef second line, to avoid confusing it with the last clef which has the same symbol but which is placed on the first line.

The second clef is bass clef. The F note is placed on the fourth line of the staff, between the 2 dots of the symbol. It is also called F clef fourth line.

The next clef is the F clef third line. It is very rare. The F note is placed on the third line, between the two dots.

The four next clefs are the C clefs. For each one, the C note is placed on the central line of the clef symbol, between the two curves. These clefs are respectively called C clef first line, C clef second line, C clef third line and C clef fourth line, referring to the line of the staff where the C note is placed.

The last key is the G clef first line. It is very rare. The G note is located on the first line. Regarding the note names, it is the same as the F clef fourth line. The only difference is that the notes are placed two octaves higher. For the 7 other clefs, the note names are each time different for each line of the staff. Be aware that in music academies, the advanced students must learn to easily read notes in the 7 clefs!"

[lemur821]

I think you may have dreamt the D clef. Even if you move a regular old F clef, it still marks where F is. It does get a different name though. I think if you move it to the top line it becomes a contrabass clef. A G clef on the bottom line is sometimes called a French violin clef.

[Freddels]

Here's a link to some information about clefs.

http://www.music.vt.edu/musicdiction...s/clefs.html#N

[Jon Simonoff]

I think you're thinking of "baritone clef". Which looks like the bass clef, but the dots are around the "D" of bass clef. But it's not D in baritone clef. It's still F. They just used it to get rid of some ledger lines. I've seen it in vocal music. It's not used much now.

They used to try not use ledger lines much to make reading "easier". Now, if someone put music in any clef but treble, bass, alto, or tenor clef most people would have trouble with it.

[Mark Wilson]

Originally Posted by Jon Simonoff

I think you're thinking of "baritone clef". Which looks like the bass clef, but the dots are around the "D" of bass clef.

yep. That's what it is!


Thanks


-Mark