Drum Notation

Want to learn how to read and write notation?

The Staff

The staff is where everything happens. It consists of five lines and all the information you need is contained within it (though some notes may be above or below the staff). All the notes (values explained below) reside either on a line or in a space.

The Drum Clef

The drum clef denotes that the following music is not written for a pitched instrument; that the position of the note indicates the drum, cymbal, or other percussion instrument played (see the Notation Key). You can tailor your staff for specific instruments - just note them on a notation key.

Time Signature

This is one of the most important parts of the staff for a drummer. This tells you how the following notes are to be played. The top number indicates the number of beats in a measure. The bottom note indicates the note that is to get one beat.

This may sound complicated, but it's not. In our example the top four indicates there are four beats in a measure: counting "1, 2, 3, 4". Four beats. The bottom number indicates which note value is getting the "one". In our example, the quarter note (hence the "4") is getting the value, so in a measure of "4/4" four quarter notes would be counted "1, 2, 3, 4" This is also called Common Time, which is sometime indicated by a large "C" in place of the "4/4" (see Cut Time below).

Cut Time

Cut time uses the large "C" discussed above with a vertical line through it, and halves both values. This basically has the effect of speeding the music up twice as fast. Don't worry about this right now.

Bar & Measure

Some folks would say the bar is where you play, but they don't read music! The bar separates the measures: each measure is contained within two bars.

Note

As mentioned above, our notes will sit on various lines of the staff, indicating which drum we are to play. The type of note will indicate the duration the note will have within our measure. The table below explains the relative values of the notes.

There are two half notes for every whole note; two quarter notes for every half note; two eighth notes for every quarter note; etc.
If we are dealing with a time signature of "4/4", then the above illustration would be one measure in length. A whole note would take up four beats: "1, 2, 3, 4"; a half note would take up two beats: "1, 2, 3, 4,"; a quarter note would take up four beats: 1, 2, 3, 4".
In order to count notes smaller than quarter notes in our "4/4" example, we need to add some sounds. Four eighth notes, we add "and". Thus, counting 8 eight notes in our measure will sound like this: "1, and, 2, and, 3, and, 4, and".
Counting sixteenth notes involves adding some more sounds: "e, and, ah". Thus, counting 16 sixteenth notes in our "4/4" measure will sound like this (take a deep breath): "1, e, and, ah, 2, e, and, ah, 3, e, and, ah, 4, e, and, ah".
This comes in handy when counting mixed-note measures. I'll get into that below. Just remember that each notes halves the value of the preceeding note.

Repeats

I'll explain all the repeats in the above diagram here. The first Repeat indicates that only one measure is to be played again (this is the measure immediately preceeding the repeat). The number above this indicates how many times the measure is repeated. It's not uncommon for writers to notate a simple rhythm in one measure, then put a repeat with a 7 or other number above the repeat, indicating the drummer is to play the measure seven more times. This is common in show music notation.

The second type of repeat is the Two-Measure Repeat. This works in the same way as the previous repeat, except two measures are being repeated, not one. As in the regular repeat, the number over the repeat indicates how many times the 2 measures are to be repeated.

The most common type of repeat if the Multi-Measure Repeat. This is indicated by a thick bar at the end of a multi-measure phrase immediately preceeded by two dots (the one on the right of the two shown). If this is at the end of the staff and no bracketing repeat is shown (the one on the left of the two shown), the piece is repeated from the beginning. If there is a bracketing repeat, the measures repeated are those within the two repeat brackets. Unless indicated, thes repeats are taken only once. It is not uncommon to have a repeat within a longer piece of music - this saves on time writing out repeated notes.

Exercises commonly have a multi-measure repeat at the end. This indicates that the exercise can be repeated ad infinitum to build chops.

Tie

The tie indicates that the two notes tied together are played as one. Thus, two tied quarter notes would be played like a half note. This is commonly done across bar lines and when linking notes of different values.

Ghost

The ghost note indicator (parenthesis) indicates that the note is to be played very quietly, as a ghost. This is common in funk and jazz notation.

Accent

The accent mark indicates that that note is to be played louder than any of the other notes. This technique allows for rhythmic phrasing using dynamics. Very common in ethnic rhythms.

Dynamics

Dynamic markings indicate the volume level of a given passage. p stands for pianissimo, or "softly". f stands for forte, or "loudly". When a letter is preceeded by an m, this means the note is played "moderately softly," or "moderately loudly", thus giving values between p and f. p and f can also be doubled and tripled (pp, ppp, ff, fff), meaning "very softly," or "very, very softly," depending on the usage.

Hand

This is used specifically in drumming notation. When placed over or under a note, it indicates which hand is to strike that note. You will notice these are used in certain exercises to build independence.

End

This solid bar at the end of a staff indicates that this is the end of the piece of music. If the music continues to another staff below or on another page, there will be a regular, thin bar at the end of the staff.

Tempo

You will often run into this over the beginning of a score. This indicates that the quarter note gets 132 beats per minute. That's really pretty fast, but this is a way for the composer to tell the performer how fast to perform the music. The note indicated here is usually the bottom note of the time signature, so if we were in "6/8" time, we would see an eighth note here.

Rests

This diagram shows the rests for the given note value. A rest is just what it says: don't play. Note that the eighth, sixteenth, and thirty-second rests are alike, one is added to the previous to indicate its value. As with notes, rests usually rest on the line for the particular voice (drum).