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Mathematics, believe it or not, plays a crucial part in the creation of music. Whether it comes down to reading sheet music, actually creating a sound by blowing air into the instrument, strumming on strings, or pushing keys down, you are using math. Having a musical background would probably help in the understanding of why math is a very essential part of a musicians life. But even if there is no musical talent revealed, it is quite simple into understanding the basic mathematical problems and terms that help make making music possible.
Before you can even start reading sheet music, you should know what everything on that piece of music means. The first thing each musician should look at before even thinking about picking up an instrument and playing is if they know what the staff is. The staff consists of five lines, and four spaces. A staff also includes the ledger lines type of staff (Treble Clef, Bass Clef, Grand Staff), the key signature, bar lines, measures, spaces, notes, rests, symbols, etc. First off, the five lines that make up the staff are called the ledger lines. There are five of them in a staff. Each line is referred to by a distinct name.
By looking at the diagram to the right, you can see how each line has its own name. The names also tell you which notes to play. Also, shown in the diagrams are the types of staffs there are. Clef is a symbol that is used to specify the pitch of the written notes. The G Clef is also referred to as the Treble Clef, and the F Clef is most commonly referred to as the Bass Clef. Also, part of the staff includes the bar lines. They are the lines that separate the staff into individual measures, or bars. Another important part of the staff, which is not prevalent in the diagram, is the time signature. The time signature specifies how many beats there are in a measure and what note value constitutes one beat. The top number of the fraction indicates how many beats there are in each measure
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