<P> In musical notation, stems are the, "thin, vertical lines that are directly connected to the (note) head ." Stems may point up or down . Different - facing stems indicate the voice for polyphonic music written on the same staff . Within one voice, the stems usually point down for notes on the middle line or higher, and up for those below . If the stem points up from a notehead, the stem originates from the right - hand side of the note, but if it points down, it originates from the left . There is an exception to this rule: if a chord contains a second, the stem runs between the two notes with the higher being placed on the right of the stem and the lower on the left . If the chord contains an odd numbered cluster of notes a second apart (such as C, D, E), the outer two will be on the correct side of the stem, while the middle note will be on the wrong side . </P> <P> The length of a stem should be that of an octave on the staff, going to either an octave higher or lower than the notehead, depending on which way the stem is pointing . If a note head is on a ledger line more than an octave away from the middle line of a staff, the stem will be elongated to touch the middle line . In any polyphonic music in which two parts are written on the same staff, stems are typically shortened to keep the music visually centered upon the staff . </P>

When do music note stems go up or down
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