How To Read Drum Notation

If you’re intending to play drums then you really should become skilled at drum notation. Drum notation is sheet music that shows you the timing of every drum in the drum kit. If you already understand how to read music you will get used to drum notation without difficulty. As it uses lots of similar notations to traditional sheet music, if you can already read music you will have no dificulty with drum notation. The following notes illustrate how the timing in drum notation is indicated in the music, so even if you are unable to read orthodox sheet music these should assist you to understand drum notation.

Traditional sheet music is made up of a staff, a time signature at the start and the notes of music. Five horizontal lines create the staff, which is divided into measures by vertical lines. You will also see added markings included in the music, these are dynamics and are there to show how the music is to be played.

To indicate the timing the time signature is used. This consists of two numbers stacked vertically. Common time (4/4) is the time signature most frequently seen, but others are used, for example 2/4, 3/4, 6/8. The time signature shows the count of beats in a measure (the top number) and the type of note that gets one beat (the bottom number), so for a timing of 2/4 each quarter note will be counted as one beat, and each measure will have 2 beats, similarly, if the time signature showed 6/8 time then each measure would have 6 beats and in this case the eighth note would be counted as one beat. The time signature does not show an absolute measure, but gives the timing relative to the speed of the music.

It is essential when you are learning to play to study the correct timimg. To do this count the beats and strive to play the note at the precise count. Do not alter the pace at which you count . If you were playing piano, where you can to sustain a note, then you would hold the note for the count indicated.. So for 4/4 time (4 beats to a measure, quarter note gets one beat) this would be a count of 1 for a quarter note, a count of 2 for a half note and a count of 4 for a whole note. Since you aren’t able to do this when playing drums, the way to keep correct timing is to strike the drum on the count then count out the rest of the beats for that note.

A drum kit has a number of drums and it is necessary to know which drum to strike. This is shown by the position of the notes on the staff, unlike in ordinary sheet music which makes use of the position of the note to show pitch, with the pitch increasing as the notes ascend the staff. In drum notation the notes for each drum are placed on the same stave, more often than not with hi-hat cymbals highest followed by the snare drum(s), then bass drum as the lowest. Some music will have a key to tell you which line indicates which drum if the regular positioning is not being utilised. In some cases a cymbol will be indicated by an x in place of a dot.

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is there an easy way to learn the heel-toe method on the drums?

i have been working on it forever, i think that it is the crappy pedal that i have. any ideas?? hit me up!

is there an easy way? not really lol. i personally hate the heel-toe method. but i got myself a practice bass drum pad and hooked my double pedal up to it and i would practice my technique and speed while watching tv or playing video games. this might be a good idea to try.

as for the quality of the pedal, i dont think that has much to do with it. i thought the same thing at first when i couldnt do it, but my drum teacher could do it on my set no problem at all lol.

Jared Falk Heel-Toe Bass Drum Technique | Slow Motion Included | Video #1 of 2 |