What musicans read to play music?

Sheet music and musical notation. Sheet music is a written representation of a musical piece, and it contains all the information a musician needs to play the piece correctly. The notes are typically written on a staff, which is a group of five horizontal lines. The notes are placed on the staff according to their pitch, and the duration of each note is indicated by its size.

In addition to sheet music, musicians may also read lyrics when playing songs with words. Lyrics indicate the text that should be sung along with the music.