Grand staff paper
Print at 100%. In the print dialog choose Actual size (or Scale: 100), not Fit to page. Then hold a ruler to the line at the bottom of the sheet.
How to print at actual size, dialog by dialog
- Chrome and Edge: open More settings, find Scale, and pick Actual size if it is listed. If it is not, pick Custom and type 100. Avoid Fit to printable area and Fit to paper.
- Firefox: untick Fit to page width, then set Scale to 100.
- Safari and Preview on a Mac: set Scale to 100%, not Scale to Fit.
- Adobe Acrobat and Reader: under Page Sizing, choose Actual size. The file already asks for it.
- iPhone and iPad: the print sheet has no scale setting. Print, then measure the line.
- Android: this depends on the printer app. Turn off any Fit to page option, then measure the line.
- Any browser: pick the file that matches the paper in your printer. A US Letter file on A4 paper, or the reverse, gets shrunk to fit.
A grand staff is two staves read as one: a treble staff on top and a bass staff below, joined at the left by a straight line and a curly brace. Piano music is written on it, the right hand mostly on the upper staff and the left hand on the lower, and so is music for harp and for other keyboard instruments.
This page starts from blank grand staff paper with 6 grand staves, 12 staves in all, and a treble and a bass clef on every pair. On US Letter the lines are 1/10 inch apart, so each staff is 0.4 inch tall; on A4 they are 2.5 mm apart and a staff is 10 mm. Both sheets are free PDFs under the download buttons, and the generator above can change any of it.
Inside one grand staff
The two staves of a pair sit one staff height apart: 0.4 inch on the Letter sheet, 10 mm on A4. That gap holds middle C, on a short ledger line just below the treble staff or just above the bass staff, and it leaves room for a few more ledger lines either way. From the top line of the treble staff to the bottom line of the bass staff, one grand staff measures 1.2 inches on Letter and 30 mm on A4.
The vertical line at the left, called the system line, and the brace beside it tie the two staves together: notes lined up across both staves are played at the same time. The brace is drawn as a vector outline, not borrowed from a music font, so it prints as sharply as the lines. Between one grand staff and the next there is about 0.45 inch of paper on Letter and about 16 mm on A4.
Grand staff, great staff, piano staff
The grand staff is also called the great staff, and in piano books simply the piano staff. Blank piano sheet music and piano staff paper are the same sheet: grand staves with nothing written on them yet. Single staves for one instrument, with one clef, are on the blank sheet music page, and fret-number notation for guitar on guitar tab paper.
Changing the layout
The generator here is the staff paper generator, started on Grand staff with the clef list on Treble and bass. Changes that suit piano music:
- Bar lines. Choose 1 to 8 measures per staff. Each bar line runs down through both staves of a pair, as in printed piano music, with a final one closing the right end, and the measures start after the clefs.
- Bigger staves for lessons. With both clefs, 4 grand staves fit on Letter at 1/8 inch line spacing and 3 at 1/5 inch. On A4, 3 mm fits 5 and 5 mm fits 3.
- Landscape. The paper on its side gives longer systems: at 1/10 inch, 4 grand staves 10 inches wide on Letter.
- No clefs. Set Clef to None for the brace and system line alone, if you would rather write the clefs, or other clefs, yourself.
The Staves box counts single staves, so 12 staves make 6 grand staves, and an odd number is rounded up to the next pair, with a note saying so.
Printing at actual size
Fit to page shrinks a grand staff by a few percent: the 1.2 inch system comes out about 1.17 inches, and the room for middle C shrinks with it. That is hard to see on one sheet, but it will not match the next sheet printed correctly. In the print dialog pick Actual size, or a scale of 100. Chrome and Edge keep that setting under More settings, and their PDF viewer, unlike Adobe Acrobat and Reader, does not follow the file's own request not to scale. Use the Letter PDF on Letter paper and the A4 PDF on A4; the list under the download buttons goes through the other browsers and phones.
Measure the calibration line
Put a ruler to the line along the bottom of the sheet: the Letter file's is 4 inches long, the A4 file's 10 cm. A grand staff is a second check, since its height scales with the page.
| The 4 in line measures | The 10 cm line measures | A grand staff | What happened |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 in | 100 mm | 1.2 in (Letter), 30 mm (A4) | Actual size |
| about 3.89 in | about 97.3 mm | about 1.17 in, or 29.2 mm | Shrunk to fit, or a Letter file on A4 paper |
| about 3.76 in | about 94.1 mm | about 1.13 in, or 28.2 mm | An A4 file on Letter paper |
What the sheet leaves out
It prints staves, clefs, a brace and a system line, and bar lines if you ask for them: no notes, no key or time signature, and no keyboard diagram. Organ music, which usually adds a third staff for the pedals, needs a layout this page does not draw. Nothing you set is uploaded, and the page cannot see your printer, which is why the line at the bottom is there.
Frequently asked questions
What is a grand staff?
A treble staff and a bass staff joined at the left by a brace and a line, read together as one system. Piano music uses it, the upper staff mostly for the right hand and the lower for the left.
Where is middle C on a grand staff?
On a ledger line between the two staves: one ledger line below the treble staff, or one above the bass staff. Both are the same note; which one is written depends on the hand that plays it and on what reads more easily.
How many grand staves fit on a page?
Six at the default spacing, 1/10 inch on Letter or 2.5 mm on A4. Larger staves fit fewer: 4 at 1/8 inch and 3 at 1/5 inch on Letter. In landscape, 4 fit at 1/10 inch.
Can I add bar lines to grand staff paper?
Yes. Pick a number of measures under Bar lines and every bar line is drawn through both staves of each grand staff, the last one closing the right end.
Is this grand staff paper free?
Yes, with no account and nothing to install. The sheet is drawn in your browser, and the only data sent anywhere is an anonymous count of page views and downloads, which the privacy page describes.