If the equation is not balanced, you have extra of one substance. If you try to do an experiment, you could wind up with a totally different outcome. Its kind of like baking a cake. If the ingredients aren't the right amounts, you dont get an edible cake.
The way I would explain it is quite difficult to understand, so this is what Google says. "The wavelength (or equivalently, frequency) of the photon is determined by the difference in energy between the two states. These emitted photons form the element's spectrum. The fact that only certain colors appear in an element's atomic emission spectrum means that only certain frequencies of light are emitted." I hope this helped.
Sound waves are longitudinal waves that is, are transmitted in the same direction of oscillation of the particles in the medium. Electromagnetic waves are transverse ie, the electric and magnetic fields, which are perpendicular to each other, oscillate perpendicularly to the direction of wave propagation.