System

In printed music, a system is everything you read together from left to right before moving down the page. For a solo flute, a system is one staff. For the piano it is the two staves of the grand staff. In an orchestral or band score, one system can hold a staff for every instrument, stacked from top to bottom.

▶Listen0:22

How to spot a system

• A vertical line at the far left joins all its staves, often with a brace or bracket grouping them.
• A clef and key signature are printed at the start of every system. The time signature appears only at the start of the piece or where it changes.
• Many editions print a small bar number above the start of each system after the first, so you can find your place quickly.
• When a large score fits two or more systems on one page, a pair of thick slanting strokes at the left margin often marks where one system ends and the next begins.

Reading system by system

Read a whole system before going on to the next, the way you read a line of text. In piano music that means reading both staves of the grand staff together, then dropping to the next grand staff. Do not read the treble staff all the way down the page and then come back for the bass.

Near the end of each system, let your eyes run ahead to the start of the next one. The jump back to the left margin is where many players hesitate, and looking ahead keeps the beat going.

Staff, system and score

• A staff is one set of five lines.
• A system is all the staves played at once, from the top one to the bottom one.
• A score is the whole piece, made of many systems.

You will also hear "system break": the point where an editor or a notation program starts a new line of music.

See three staves read as one system in One Moment, Three Staves.