An Italian music theorist named GUIDO D'AREZZO living in Germany started at the note F and tried to play Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do. Musicians of that time were not aware that the Ionian mode is only ⅙ of the music spectrum. Phrygian (from E to E), Lydian (from F to F), and Mixolydian (from G to G), The most commonly used Church mode was the Ionian (Major) mode, otherwise known as the key of C. Each line and space represented the natural notes (the white notes on a modern piano keyboard) and labeled after the first 7 letters of the alphabet A, B, C, D, E, F, G.įor centuries in Europe, Western Music was made up of these 7 different notes, and was played in the 7 CHURCH MODES known as, Aeolian (minor from A to A), Locrian (from B to B), Ionian (Major from C to C), Dorian (fron D to D). It was a very simple, easy-to-read system.Īs time went on, and to simplify the notation and make the staff easier to read, the musical staff was divided into the treble and bass clefts. There were no black notes (no sharps or flats), nor any room for any additional notes on the musical staff.

Every line and space represented a natural note, the white notes on a modern piano. For the first thousand years of Western Music, the musical staff consisted of 11 lines and 10 spaces, the middle line representing the note C (middle C).

Musical sharp and flat symbols