Lines,
are termed Cliffs or Claves, Keys to open and signify what part or pitch
of Voice, _viz._ the _Treble_, _Mean_, or _Basse_ properly the Notes
belong to; as likewise on what Line or Space the Seven letters
expressing the Notes is placed. And then again, the five Lines and
Spaces between them are useful, as Steps or Gradations whereon the
degrees of Sound are to be expressed, or the Notes ascending and
descending: Then Thirdly, the Characters placed on the five Lines,
express the Notes themselves, or stand for them; and their difference in
form, signify their quality, whether they be longer or shorter.

Your care must therefore be in this, and the Chapters following, to
consider well in the first place, the _Gam-ut_, to learn the use of the
Cliffs: Next to that, the Names of the Lines and Spaces, whereby you may
readily know how to call a Note, as it stands on any of the Lines; and
Thirdly, How you should Sing those Notes in right Tune, as well by
degrees, as leaps; and last of all, to give each Note its due Quantity
of Time.

This in general, being observed, and seriously weighed; that you may
take a prospect of your task, I from it proceed to the _Gam-ut_, so far
as I think necessary to my present design, which is to let you
understand by it the use of the Cliffs, with the order and distances of
the Notes, as the Parts in a Body lye together.

[Illustration: The Gamut or Scale of MUSIC]

The consistence of this Scale is of Eleven Lines, with the Intermediate
Spaces, and contains the places of all the Notes that are made use of
Ordinarily in Vocal Musick. In the first Column you will find placed the
Old Notes, being set down, that you may see what they are. And in the
Second Column you are shewed which of the Seven letters properly belongs
to each Line and Space. The Third Column contains the Cliffs, or signed
Keys, demonstrating how many degrees of Notes they are one above
another, which once Circumspectly observed and known, the other degrees
of Distance are with more ease computed. And here

Five of these Lines, with their Spaces, are usually sufficient for the
pricking down any Tune, for which reason this Scale is divided into
Three Parts or Staves, compassed in with Arched Lines; and of these the
lowermost five are proper and belonging to the _Bass_, and are known by
this mark [Symbol: Bass Clef] on the Line of _F_. usually, therefore
called the _F. Fa-ut_ Cliff or Key; because it opens to us the letters