Someone probably tried to teach you that stuff, but you were not interested. It was considered 'cool' to reject the establishment and this music represented the 'establishment'. I recognize today even more for what it represented in world history. It represented a line of music that God had His hand on. Remember what He said about Japheth - God was going to bless this line.
Music is basically sound produced by vibrations.
The faster and smaller string vibration, the higher the pitch goes. The slower the vibration and larger the string, the lower the pitch. Pitch is the high and low sound. The five-line staff was a developed idea. An established sound could only be played by one person until someone developed how to write it down.