A "system" is a single line of a set of staves that are grouped together. OK,
maybe that isn't the best explanation, but maybe an illustration is better:
Grand Piano |----|----|----|----|----|
Guitar |----|----|----|----|----|
Flute |----|----|----|----|----|
GPno |----|-----|----|-----|----|----|
Gtr |----|-----|----|-----|----|----|
Flu |----|-----|----|-----|----|----|
GPno |----|-----|----|-----|----|----|
Gtr |----|-----|----|-----|----|----|
Flu |----|-----|----|-----|----|----|
GPno |----|-----|----|----|----|----||
Gtr |----|-----|----|----|----|----||
Flu |----|-----|----|----|----|----||
In this example, each instrument gets its own "staff". However, because the
three instruments are played together, their staves are grouped together.
That's called a staff group. Now, each line of the staff group is called a
"system". In this example, there are three staves, one staff group, and four
systems.
There are some things that are special with systems. For example, bar numbering
usually happens only on the beginning of systems. Also, (correct me if I'm
wrong, but) I think a line of music is still called a "system" even if it only
contains one staff.
Hope this helps. ^_^
Romel_______________________________________________
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