As for the rest, the _Cliff_ leads you to them, for beginning there, and Ascending, you will find the letters lying in Order, and in descending; it is only your naming them backwards.
The dash Lines, which you perceive above and below, are added only when the Notes Ascend above the _Staff_, or descend below it.
_Directions as to the Distances of one Note from another, as to Sound._
In this case, the distances are not all equal, but that in the rising and falling of any Eight Notes, there are two lesser distances; and these are named _Semitones_, or the _Half Notes_, which must be well observed and known, in remarquing their places in the _Staff_ of Lines; and the better to have them in your Memory at all times take a rule from certain Rhimes that point at their places, _viz._
_In every octave there are half Notes two, Which do to us their proper places shew; One half Note you will find from_ B _to_ Ce, _The other half one lyes twixt_ Fa _and_ Le.
The _octave_ mentioned as an Eighth, and this Rule denotes the ordinary places where you are to Sing the Half Notes, when there are no Flats or Sharps placed or set in the Lines, _viz._ between _B_ and _Ce_, and twixt _Le_ and _Fâ_; these Flats and Sharps you will find thus marked [Symbol: for Flat] [Symbol: for Sharp] and when the _Semitones_, or _Half Notes_ are shifted, they are known by them when they are found upon the Lines.
Observe, that in these Staves or Lines, you find the Notes Gradually Ascending, of which the Pairs marked with Arches are half a Note distant.
+-------+ G. | | +-------+ F. 1 +-------+ E. | | 2 +-------+ D. | | 3 +-------+ C. 4 +-------+ B. | | 5 +-------+ A. | | 6 +-------+ G.
This Marginal Figure, shews to the Eye the distance of the Seven Notes one from another, the Letters Guiding or Directing to the Particulars, whereas you perceive _B_, _Ce_, and _Lâ_, _Fa_, lying near unto the rest, so must their Sounds be nearer when you come to Tune your Voice in harmony, _&c._ and the better to express with your Voice, and so observe the difference between half and whole distances of Notes; Sing often over these six Mona-Syllables, _viz._ _One_, _Two_, _Three_, _Four_, _Five_, _Six_, distinctly, as is to be observed in the Tune of Six Bells; and when you have done it many times, Sing only _One_, _Two_, _Three_, _Four_, and there stop, repeating three four by them selves for they are _Semitones_ distant in Sound, and the rest are alone, or a whole Note distant each from the next; so that by a little Judicial Observation you will perceive the three and four Bells to be a lesser distant in Sound, than the other.
