Music Reading: Understanding the Music Staff

The response from Andrew Wasson of Creative Guitar Studio to;

Was hoping that you could help me with the topic of Music Reading.

I have absolutely no understanding of reading music. So, I will just go over what I have been researching so far...

- Ive learned that music is read off of the Music Staff.

- The staff is composed of 5 lines and 4 spaces.

- The lines are named from the bottom going upwards; E, G, B, D, F. (mnemonic = Every Good Boy Does Fine)

- The spaces are named again from bottom going up F, A, C, E (spelling the word FACE).

- There are 5 note durations:
Whole = 4 beats,
Half = 2 beats,
Quarter = 1 beat,
Eighth = 1/2 a beat
Sixteeth note... (but, I have no idea what it looks like or what it does).

This is all I know. Ive heard that the lines on the staff represent strings on the guitar. If so, how come there are six strings on a guitar and five lines on the staff.? And, if the lines are the guitar strings, what do the spaces on the staff represent?

I am having a very difficult time understanding this. I have been watching your videos and I am hoping that you could help me to understand all of this.

- Shane

Andrew discusses the principles of the music staff including; Clef sign, Key Signature sign, Time Signature symbol, Note layout, pitch relationship to the guitar, and fingerboard concepts involved in learning to read music notation on guitar.