Reading Drum Notation

The drums are written on a STAFF, which contains 5 lines.
The first sign at the beginning of a piece of drum music: l l,
tells us that the music is written on the percussion staff.
The staff is divided into BARS. Each bar will have a certain number of beats or a ‘pulse’ running
through it, often there are 4 beats in a bar.
The notes you can see are called CROTCHETS.

They have a note value of 1 whole beat, or ¼ of a bar.
The 4/4 at the beginning of this bar, is the time signature.
The four on the bottom tells us the type of beats, in this case crotchets. The four on the top tells us how many crotchets, or beats, in each bar.
So 4/4 means that there are four whole beats in the bar.
There can be many different time signatures, such as 3/4, 5/4, 6/8, 12/8 but 4/4 is by far the most common. In fact, it can also be known as ‘COMMON TIME’ and may be written as a ‘C’ instead of 4/4.
The bars are read like a book, from left to right.

NOTE AND REST VALUES
To keep things simple we are going to look at note values in 4/4, or ‘common time’.
Each different note has an equivalent rest sign.
Here are the different note and rest values:

Count out bars of four: 1 2 3 4, 1 2 3 4 etc.
Each count is one whole beat. Because we are counting 4 beats to the bar, each note is ¼ of a bar.
For this reason, we call these notes ¼ notes.
Drummers usually refer to the note values: ¼ notes, 1/8 notes, 1/16 notes, etc.
1/8 notes are counted like this: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
1/16 notes are counted like this: 1 e + a 2 e + a 3 e + a 4 e + a
Notes with ‘flags’ or ‘tails’ are often tied together in groups. This makes them easier to read - it’s like reading words instead of individual letters.
When you come across a rest sign you should count out the note but not play it.
Don’t worry too much about learning all the notation, you will get plenty of practice as you work through the exercises. Look back to this section if you need a reminder.

DRUM NOTATION
All drum notation uses the same note values, but there can be different ways of showing the various parts of the drum kit. Ride and crash cymbals and hi-hats may be shown using a variety of different markings. Think of it as the same language but with different accents!
This is the notation that we will be using: