C Clef (Alto and Tenor Clef)

The C clef looks like a tall bracket with two curved halves meeting at a point. Wherever that point sits on the staff, that line is middle C (C4). Unlike the treble and bass clefs, the C clef is regularly placed on more than one line, so before reading you check which line it marks.

▶Alto clef0:06▶Tenor clef0:06

Alto clef

With the point on the middle (third) line, the C clef is the alto clef.

• Lines, bottom to top: F, A, C, E, G.
• Spaces, bottom to top: G, B, D, F.

The viola reads alto clef almost all the time. Its range sits right around middle C, so in treble clef it would need ledger lines below the staff and in bass clef ledger lines above it. The alto trombone also reads alto clef, and older vocal music used it for alto parts.

Tenor clef

With the point on the fourth line, it is the tenor clef.

• Lines, bottom to top: D, F, A, C, E.
• Spaces, bottom to top: E, G, B, D.

Cellists, bassoonists and trombonists read bass clef most of the time and switch to tenor clef for higher passages. It saves them long stacks of ledger lines without jumping all the way up to treble clef.

Other C clefs

Older music, especially vocal music, also puts the C clef on the first line (soprano clef), the second line (mezzo-soprano clef) and the fifth line (baritone clef). Modern editions usually rewrite those parts in treble or bass clef, but you will see them in facsimiles and in some scores used for score-reading practice.

Learning to read it

Start from middle C: find the line the clef points to, call it C and count outward one letter per line or space. Then learn a landmark or two near the edges of the staff. In alto clef, the bottom line is F and the top line G; in tenor clef, the bottom line is D and the top line E. Reading slow, familiar melodies in the new clef, naming each note aloud, builds fluency faster than translating from another clef.

Try Reading alto & tenor clefs, and see a cello part move between clefs in Cello: One Sound Across Two Clefs.