Blank Sheet Music
Make blank sheet music to print: staff paper with treble, bass or grand staff, blank guitar tab or bass tab, in US Letter or A4.
How to make printable staff paper
This blank sheet music maker prints staff paper, also called manuscript paper, in US Letter or A4: choose treble, bass or grand staff, blank guitar or bass tab, how many staves and how tall, add bar lines and a title, then print it or download it as an SVG. Set the page and the preview updates as you go:
- Paper: US Letter (8.5 by 11 inches) or A4 (210 by 297 mm).
- Type: treble clef, bass clef, grand staff for piano, plain staves with no clef, blank guitar tab (6 lines), blank bass tab (4 lines), or a staff with a guitar tab under it.
- Lines: 6 to 12 staves (or systems) per page. If they do not fit at the chosen size, the tool says how many fit and draws that many.
- Staff height: the height of one five-line staff, from 6 mm to 10 mm. Larger staves are easier for beginners and children; smaller ones fit more music on a page.
- Bars: bar lines dividing each line into 1 to 6 equal bars, or none.
- Margins and an optional Title: type a title, or leave the box empty for a blank line to write on.
Press Print to print the page alone, without the rest of this website, or Download SVG to save it as a vector file you can print at any size or open in a drawing program. Your settings are kept in this browser for next time.
Printing tips
In the print dialog, choose the same paper size as in the tool and set the scale to 100% or actual size, so the staves come out at the height you picked. If your printer cannot print to the edge, pick the 15 mm or 20 mm margin. The page itself is plain black lines on white, so it prints well on any printer, in black and white.
The staff: 5 lines and 4 spaces
A music staff (or stave) has five lines and four spaces, and each line and space is one note. Notes go up the staff as they go up in pitch, letter by letter. The clef at the start tells you which note is where.
| Clef | Lines, bottom to top | Spaces, bottom to top |
|---|---|---|
| Treble clef | E G B D F | F A C E |
| Bass clef | G B D F A | A C E G |
The treble clef curls around the G line (the second line), which is why it is also called the G clef. The bass clef's two dots sit either side of the F line (the fourth line), so it is also the F clef. Middle C sits on a short extra line (a ledger line) just below the treble staff or just above the bass staff. The Grand staff joins a treble and a bass staff with a brace, the way piano music is written: usually the right hand on top and the left hand below.
Blank guitar tab and bass tab
Tab (tablature) shows where to play instead of which note: each line is a string and each number is a fret. Blank guitar tab has six lines; the top line is the highest string (the thin high E in standard tuning) and the bottom line is the low E, so the page looks like the neck seen from above. Blank bass tab has four lines, G at the top and E at the bottom. A 0 means the open string. Staff + guitar tab gives you both, so you can write the notes and the frets together. To work out the notes of each fret, use the fretboard notes chart, and for chord shapes see guitar chords. To type tab on screen instead, use the guitar tab maker; for chord boxes, the chord chart maker.
Ideas for using staff paper
- Write out scales and practise writing the key signatures at the start of each staff.
- Take down a melody by ear, a bar at a time; bar lines of 4 per line keep the rhythm tidy.
- Copy out a tune from the melody generator as practice in writing notes and rhythms.
- Write your own songs and riffs on staff + tab paper.
- Teachers: print large staves for young students and small ones for theory homework.
Questions
Is this staff paper free to print?
Yes. Print as many pages as you like or download the SVG, with no sign-up. The pages are plain lines, clefs and tab letters, so you can copy and share them.
How many lines does a music staff have?
Five lines and four spaces. Guitar tab has six lines, one per string, and bass tab has four.
What paper size should I choose?
Use US Letter (8.5 by 11 inches) in the United States and Canada, and A4 (210 by 297 mm) in most other countries. Choose the size of the paper in your printer.
Why does the page print with other parts of the website?
Use the Print button on this page, not a screenshot: it prints only the sheet. If your browser adds headers and footers, turn them off in the print dialog.