Blank 5-line staff paper: for composition, transcription and music theory.

Free blank music staff paper PDF. Five-line manuscript paper for composition and transcription, Letter and A4.

Music Staff Paper | Free Printable Manuscript PDF

Music Staff Paper

Every staff needs a clef (treble, bass, alto, or tenor) and key signature before you can read pitch. Pencil these in lightly before adding notes. They're often the most-erased part of a working draft.

Pencil the clef and key signature first

For piano music, brace pairs of staves with a curly brace at the left edge (treble + bass = one piano part). For ensemble work, group staff systems with square brackets. Plan the grouping before you start writing or you'll run out of vertical space mid-bar.

Group staves by instrument or hand

When you reach the end of a system and start a new one below, leave at least one blank staff between for dynamic markings, lyrics, and chord symbols. Twelve staves per page sounds like a lot until you start filling them densely.

Skip a staff between systems

Composers traditionally sketch in 2B or 3B pencil. Soft enough to erase cleanly, dark enough to read at glance. Ink-pen sketching is for finalised pages only; the revision rate during composition is too high for permanent ink.