: Reading score. What is a system? In piano class the teacher told the first pair of students to play the first system and the second pair of students to play the second system. The piece played was eight measures long, binary

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A "system" is just a line of music, and by "line" of music, we mean a staff line.

For a single-staff instrument, the first system will just be the first staff line of music, like so:

For a multi-staff instrument like the piano, the first system will be the line of music shown on the first grand staff. And since it's a grand staff, the first system actually includes two different staves, like so:

I assume the eight-measure piece in piano class was split up across two different lines of music, so the the first pair of students were to play the first line, while the second pair of students were to play the second line.