Staff & manuscript paper

Every kind of blank sheet music in one place: treble, bass, alto and tenor clef staves, the grand staff for piano, large beginner staves and percussion staves. Make a sheet below with the clef and number of staves you want, or pick a ready-made format.

Choose a format

What staff paper is

Staff paper is blank sheet music: pages ruled with sets of five horizontal lines, each set called a staff (or stave). Notes go on the lines and in the spaces between them, and the clef at the start of a staff says which pitch each line stands for. Manuscript paper and music paper are other names for the same thing; manuscript paper is the more traditional term.

Which format to print

Match the clef to the instrument. Treble clef suits voice, violin, flute, trumpet and the right hand of the piano; bass clef suits cello, bassoon, trombone, bass guitar and the left hand. Viola reads alto clef, and cello, bassoon and trombone switch to tenor clef for high passages. Piano music needs the grand staff, which braces a treble and a bass staff together.

Then choose how many staves fit on a page. Ten or twelve is standard for writing music down; six to eight larger staves are easier for beginners and young children, whose noteheads come out big. A lead sheet has room for chord symbols and lyrics above and below a single melody line.

Printing it at the right size

Every sheet is drawn for US Letter or A4. Print at 100% (Actual size) so the staff spacing comes out as designed, and use plain white paper: it takes pencil well and erases cleanly, which matters more than weight when you are composing.

Free, print-ready, no sign-up

Every sheet is drawn fresh in your browser and downloads as a clean PDF at US Letter or A4. Prefer to set everything by hand? Open the blank music paper generator, or read the guides to pick the right format.