Lesson 5.2 - The Tenor Clef

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The tenor clef is just below the alto clef and its 4th line is middle C.

Apart from simply naming the notes of the tenor clef, an examination may require you to write out a simple melody from treble or bass clef into tenor clef or vice versa. For example;

becomes

The most common mistake made in examinations is to write the correct letter name but at the wrong octave, so for reference, compare the notes you have written to how far away from middle C they are.

The other thing to notice carefully here is the position of the sharps. For all the other clefs; treble, bass and alto the sharps start off with a "higher-lower-higher-lower" pattern but for the tenor clef it starts with the first sharp in a lower position. For the flat key signatures there is no such distinction. All the clefs will start with a flat in a lower position.

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