Any of you who have ever seen a piano know what the keyboard looks like. A section of it looks like this:

These are the keys that are more or less directly in front of the pianist when s'he sits down. The key at the far left is almost in the middle of the keyboard, and is known as "Middle C." Cling to that name. It's the last scrap of logic we're going to meet on this journey.

The white keys then proceed left to right as C, D, E, F, G, A and B. The black keys have different names depending on the direction from which they are played. The first black key is therefore both C Sharp and D Flat. Most of the music with which you are familiar probably begins in this "Middle C" position.

Now, I'm sure most of you are familiar with the five lines upon which music is written:

This is where it starts to get arbitrary, and not a little insane.

Since everything "starts" with that C key/note, logic would suggest that its musical symbol is positioned on the first line:

But it isn't. Instead, it is positioned BELOW the first line, on a little partial line that is there just for it.

And that puts the next key, D, in the space above it, still below the "official" lines:

The rest of the keys follow suit, alternating lines and spaces, up to B:

So there we are, with two notes below the bottom (first) line, and an acre of space at the top! Who thought this was a good idea??

Now, it seems to me, if "everything starts" with C, C should be called A, and it should be on the bottom (first) line. Look what happens if we do that:

This also has the effect of "centering" the notes on the keys, so instead of A being off to the left, everything lines up with each group of black keys:

See? Simple! No more having to remember that A is over at the right, between the black keys G Sharp and B Flat (which helps only if you can remember that that key is A in the first place!), A is the FIRST key and note, and G, instead of being nearly in the middle, is the LAST key and note. This hold for each octave.

Music Workers of the World unite! The time for REVOLUTION is upon us!!!!!

IIRC, the reason the middle C is below the lines has to do with the clef (or clefs) that are being used. Even though "treble" and "bass" cefs are pretty much the only clefs being used anymore, there are a BUNCH  of different ones.

Also, the staff isn't meant to be a direct transposition of the piano keys.

Well, really it doesn't correspond to any stringed instrument.

Be glad you didn't decide to take up guitar. You'd go crazy trying to figure out why it's tuned the way it is.

i USED TO BE ABLE TO READ MUSIC AND PLAY PIANO AND SAXOPHONE, BUT NOW i PLAY EVERYTHING BY EAR. eXCEPT SAXOPHONE. i'VE NOT PICKED ONE UP IN PROBABLY CLOSE TO 30 YEARS.

(Stupid caps lock. )

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My bud Gary Cody took up guitar around the same time I started piano. Whenever we "talk music" and both grouse about notation, he says "And I have to do it upside down!"

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Ah, but do we? Really?

Consider a possibly poor analogy: the automobile. Engine, frame, wheel on each corner. A form of transportation. Yet every automobile is no built for the same fuel, or to do the same job, to be driven in the same way, or even by the same people. So, when a NASCAR drive gets behind the wheel of the family station wagon (work with me here), he knows the rules and functions are different.

Why can't musical notation be like that? Specific to the instrument. I'm sure most musicians are smart enough to adapt -- like that NASCAR driver.