Please Please forgive my ignorance!!! I am a beginner...

I understand treble clef (upper) and bass clef (lower) and know how to read them (Every Good Boy...).

However, some of my sheet music has 3 bars (is that the right term?). There are two separate treble clefs and one bass.

For example, at one time, it tells me to play C (top treble bar), A-E-C (next treble bar), and E (bottom bass bar).

That may not seem so bad, but the piece is rather complicated (for me). Could it mean that it is to be played on two pianos? Or do I pick one treble bar or the other to play.

My gut tells me that I play everything. But any insight would be great. Thank you,

Nicole

...Usually when you have two treble clefs, The top one is a vocal part to the song. If not, then I don`t know...

Yes I also do believe that the first treble clef that you see is the vocal line. You do not need to play that. Its only for those who are singing the song.

only for the people singing

Well, on some piano music, more difficult piano music for instance Litzs or some of Debussy, there will often be three clefs on the music, for one person to play... but if you are a beginner then yea i guesse for singers

If all the notes on the top treble are all single (no two notes sounded at once) then its probably vocal.

Otherwise it could be two clefs for one hand (As seen in Rachmaninnoffs C#- prelude), but if this is beginner music then its probably not the case.

Yeah, in alot of the more difficult stuff, its more convenient to compose with 3 clefs. For instance, in Liszt`s Transcendental Etude No. 4, the melody is written in the 1st clef (treble), and the harmony is both in the 2nd and 3rd clef. The reason why its written this way is because the 2nd clef alternates between treble and bass quite often (so if the 1st and 2nd were combined, the composer would have to keep writing in the treble and bass symbol every measure for the cases where the 1st and 2nd clefs are not the same).

There are often different editions, as well, so I would not be surprised if there is a different edition of this piece without the 3 clefs (although it would make it alot harder to read).

But, it`s really for convenience. If the top clef is smaller, and the note in the top clef is also in the middle clef, then its just a way of showing which notes get the emphasis (if it hasn`t been made clear by tenutos, accents, etc.)--bringing out the melody.