The staff is a musical notation or representation of the music in a “physical” sense.  The staff gives tone, note name, timing and music key information to the reader.

Don’t be intimidated by the format, it is actually quite simple when you are shown the tricks.

If you look at the left hand column in the figure labeled Staff Notation you will notice three lines above the staff and three below.   Looking at the right hand column you will also notice the same.  The column on the left has all the “spaces” labeled while the right column has all “lines” labeled.

I’ve over exaggerated the letter “C” at each location so that your eyes may pick out the word FACE.  On the “spaces” column you will find the word FACE labeled inside the staff area, looking at the “lines” column you will see the word FACE two times…once located beneath and ending at the staff…and the second starts on the top of the staff and extends upward.