Learning how to read drum music can be a challenge, but there are a few tricks to help you coordinate all the information contained in the drum notation.
In this article, I will teach everyone how to read drum music. Music for drummers (also called notation) is fairly straightforward, especially if you have any previous experience with reading music from another instrument.
If you’ve never seen written music before, let alone drum notation, this post is for you!
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Table of Contents
What is Drum Notation?
Drum notation is different from sheet music, although some of the same concepts are similar and used. In sheet music, the symbols on the staff correspond to different notes.
In drum notation, symbols represent different parts of the drum kit (snare, hi-hat, kick drum, etc.) that will be played. This is useful for beginners learning to coordinate their limbs, helping to develop the skills necessary to comfortably keep time steady and play the correct part of the drums.
IN THE DRUM NOTATION, THE SYMBOLS REPRESENT DIFFERENT PIECES OF THE DRUM
In drum notation, notes are written on the staff and separated by vertical bar lines. The space between the bar lines is known as a “measure”. Typically, it will count beats as you play different notes on the drums within each measure.
Drum notation contains similarities to the score in which measurements are counted and read in the same way. By learning to read and write this part of the musical language, you will develop a strong sense of time and rhythm control.
How to Read Drum Music
While with conventional music each line of music refers to a different tone. In a drum kit, each line refers to a different drum. To start, we will only see 3 different notes: the hi-hat, the snare drum, and the kick drum.
The Staff
Before we get into the heart of the notes and drum notation, we first have to build the scaffolding on which our drum notes will sit.
We will put all of our drum ideas on five lines known as staff.
It is the visual representation of the music played. Think of the drum sheet music as a set of 2 layers of symbols.
The first thing we must establish is what the staff is. The image above is of a standard staff (staff) that uses the percussion clef with a 4/4 signature.
Each staff is divided into smaller sections called bars (or measures). For ease of reading, each bar is separated by a compass bar. In this particular staff, there are 4 bars.
Here is a detailed and disaggregated version of the staff:
The key is used to determine how the music is supposed to be read exactly. For our beginner purposes, the key is relatively unimportant since drum music doesn’t exactly require one.
The key in the image is called the percussion key. Sometimes you will see that the percussion key is changed to a bass or treble clef, but for now, don’t worry.
Time Signatures
At first glance, a time signature is very much like a fraction.
The image on the right is a 4/4 time example. You can see how much the compass is like a fraction.
This is where things can get a little confusing, so for now we will keep things simple. In North America, standard time is traditionally 4/4. The first number tells you how many times there are in a bar, and the bottom number dictates what the value of time is.
Here is how to read drum notes. When playing a note is where the second layer of symbols comes in. And the most important symbol of this layer is this:
It will be placed at the beginning of each drum score piece and for now, you can safely ignore the number at the bottom.
So, in 4/4 time, there would be four beats on the bar, and each time will have a quarter note. Don’t worry if this doesn’t make sense, we’ll dig into the time signatures later. This brings us to the next part, the quarter note.
Bars
Well, 4 notes for a complete piece of music would not be great. It would give about 0.1 to 4 seconds of music (if it was very slow).
But fitting in, say, 400 instead of 4 notes wouldn’t be helpful either, because unless you’re an advanced musician, you need to count notes in order to follow. And you would definitely lose track when trying to count to 400 and play the drums at the same time.
In this way, you can put 400 notes in a score, which will give you minutes and minutes of music, while you only have to count to 4 because now the sequence of 400 notes would be divided into 100 bars containing 4 notes each.
Drum clef
The problem is that all kinds of different musicians use the staff.
So how do we know that what we are reading is drum sheet music?
Let’s face it, we will look a bit silly trying to play the rhythm of a bassoon solo or a Spanish guitar melody if that is what the score is for.
Fortunately, the drummers have come together and created a symbol of their own that you will see at the beginning of most drum music.
This tells you categorically that what you are reading is designed for the battery.
If I’m totally honest, we could probably have chosen a better one, because that symbol looks suspiciously like a pause button.
Quarter Note
A quarter note takes up a beat, so you must hit count “1” and end it by the time “2” counts. Suppose for a second that what follows would be another quarter note, and another and another.
At this point, you can already read drum music. Take your hands and play the previous measurement on your desk. Count out “one, two, three, four” as steady as you can, then bang on your desk to the beat of the music. Easy right?
If you have had any experience reading music before, you will notice that the quarter notes are placed in the standard space “C” on the staff. This indicates that you will play the drum. Later we will see what other notes correspond to which battery.
Eighth Notes
An eighth note, by contrast, only lasts half a beat, making half of each of your counts. You played “1” and the eighth note would end exactly halfway between counts “1” and “2”.
But how do you determine the exact point between two accounts? Well, through a finer counting system.
Instead of “1, 2, 3, 4”, we would now count “1, and, 2, and, 3, and 4 and”. And upon reaching count “1”, it would now be the eighth exactly up to our first “y”.
Knowing How to Hit Cymbals
When setting up your drum set, you have many options to select your cymbals. Depending on what you play, you can find any of the following techniques while reading the drum notation.
Hitting the cymbal or top hat
Hi-hat is one of the main timing tools for a drummer. By pressing your foot on the pedal, you can create a loud sound between the two cymbals. The more you release the pressure on the pedal, the more of a “washy” sound your hi-hat will make.
What is a shock drum technique?
You can use the bell of a cymbal to accentuate a stronger part. Drummers often use the shoulder of the drumstick to take out the volume of the bell.
What is a Choke Crash Drum Technique?
A crash shock technique is used when a cymbal is silenced after it has been struck. This often creates a “tight” feel in music is performed in conjunction with different instruments. To do this, you will first hit the cymbal (often a crash cymbal) as usual, and then immediately grab it with one of your hands to quickly reduce its sound.
What is the Chinese Drum Technique?
A porcelain cymbal is often used as an alternative to a noisy cymbal. It sounds very heavy and “garbage”. This cymbal can be used to accentuate loud sections in a piece of music.
What is a Dashboard Drum Technique?
A splash cymbal is a very small cymbal used to accentuate light sections in a piece of music. Due to their small size, the notes do not last as long as a stroll or a cymbal. Therefore, this cymbal can be used to add a lot of versatility to lighter dynamic sections in music.
What is an Open HI-HAT Drum Technique?
An open hi-hat is often played by taking your foot off the hi-hat pedal and allowing the cymbals to bounce off each other. This is typically used in loud sections of music.
What is a Close HI-HAT Drum Technique?
A closed hi-hat technique is the opposite of an open hi-hat: the two cymbals are pressed against each other by pressing the pedal to create a very loud and clear sound.
What is a Loose HI-HAT Drum Technique?
A loose hi-hat technique falls between a closed and open technique. Usually, you’ll lightly press the pedal, allowing the two cymbals to bounce off each other, but not so much that they resonate for a long time. You can use this technique to create stronger dynamics within a piece of music.
Writing Drum Sheet Music
I also promised to include some tips on how to write drum sheet music.
This is especially useful when you join an existing band and are forced to learn dozens of songs that are new to you in no time. Chances are, you can’t learn them all by heart until the first rehearsal.
So I always write drum charts for songs and take them during the first rehearsals. This way, I don’t have to worry about what to play and I can focus on playing it well.
And since you already know how to read drum scores, you also implicitly know how to write it. So:
Notation software
I use a notation program called Musink to write all my drum parts. And the best part: it’s free and easy to use!
Here is a tutorial on how to write drum notation in Musink.
Final Thoughts
If you’re just starting to learn how to read drum music. Start by counting and playing rhythms on a surface before voicing the parts around a drum kit.
Use a metronome to have a good time and have fun. Read drum music for a song you like. It gets easier, especially if you read a little every day.
