Grand staff paper
Two staves, one brace, and a gap between them wide enough for the ledger lines that meet in the middle.
A grand staff is two five-line staves treated as one thing: a brace down the left-hand side, a vertical line joining them at the start of the system, and bar lines that run straight through both. That is what tells a reader the two staves are played together by one player rather than being two separate parts, which is why it is the paper for piano, harp, organ and anything else with two hands and one brain.
The gap between the two staves is the number nobody thinks about until it is wrong. Ledger lines come down below the upper staff and up above the lower one, and they meet in the middle around middle C. Too little space and they collide into an unreadable ladder; too much and a single system eats the page. Seven staff spaces is the usual working figure and it is what this sheet draws, scaling with the staff height so the proportion holds whatever size you choose.
The brace is drawn as a plain curve of even weight, which is what a ruled manuscript page has always had, rather than as an engraved brace with a swelling waist. An even-weight brace is a shape that cannot come out subtly wrong; a variable-width one can, and a nearly-right brace is more distracting on a blank page than an honest simple one.
There are no clefs. That is the one thing this page will not do for you, and it is a deliberate choice rather than an unfinished one — see the question below, because it is the first thing most people notice about a grand staff sheet.
Six systems is what a Letter or A4 page holds comfortably at rastral No. 1, and the number falls fast as the staff height goes up — a grand staff is nearly four times the height of a single staff once the gap is counted. Ask for more than the page holds and the generator says how many actually fit rather than squashing them together.
Staff and tab paper by instrument
- Staff and tab paper, any sizeThe full generator — any staff height, six systems
- Blank sheet musicFive-line staves · manuscript paper at any staff height
- Guitar tab paperSix lines · one per string, spacing you can set
- Bass tab paperFour lines · wider spacing for high fret numbers
- Ukulele tab paperFour lines · tighter spacing, short neck
- Staff and tab paperNotation over tablature · joined as one system
Questions
Why are there no treble and bass clefs?
Because a hand-drawn treble clef that is nearly right is worse than no clef at all. It is a difficult shape, a version of it that is slightly off is the first thing a musician's eye catches, and there is no honest way to draw one without shipping a font — which would be an external request this site does not make. Blank piano manuscript sold in shops leaves the clefs to you as well, on the grounds that the clef belongs to the piece. The brace is drawn, because a brace is a curve rather than a glyph.
Can I use this for organ music?
For manuals, yes — two staves braced together is exactly right. Organ music with a separate pedal part conventionally uses three staves, the pedal staff sitting below and outside the brace, which this sheet does not draw. The nearest thing here is a page of plain five-line staves with the spacing set wide enough to group them by eye.
How do I check the grand staff printed at the right size?
Two measurements, and take the second: one staff from its bottom line to its top line should read the staff height you chose, 7.9 mm by default. Then measure the whole system, top line to bottom line — at 7.9 mm that is 29.6 mm, since the gap between the staves is seven staff spaces. The larger number is the one that will expose a printer quietly scaling the page.
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