Focus Skill: Stave Furniture Keywords: Stave, Bar, Barline, Clef, Time Signature. Skill - Reading Skill: Identification of foundational music symbols. Music is a language made up of symbols that tell musicians what to play and how to play it. For Key Stage 3 students, learning to read these symbols is an important step in understanding music. This post explains some of the most common music symbols you will encounter: the stave, bar, barline, treble clef, bass clef, and time