Every drummer will come across some sort of notation at one point in their drumming careers. While many drummers can read notation, most drummers aren’t able to. It’s important to have a basic understanding of how drum sheet music works as it helps a lot when learning things.
Having patterns and songs written down for you means you won’t have to rely on your memory to play everything. If you can’t read drum notation, you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to take a brief dive into everything that it involves.
Reading drum rhythms and charts will:
1) Make your learning far easier, (because every drum book on the market has drum notation in it!)
2) Allow you to transcribe and memorize songs, and
3) Help to make you more employable.
Unless you are a top flight session guy you don’t have to read everything perfectly first time through so don’t panic. Just keep at it and you will become more fluid in time.
The first thing that you will notice when you look at a piece of drum music or any music for that matter is the staff – 5 horizontal lines that run across the page. This is where all the notes and directions are arranged.
The bar lines run vertically creating little slices of time in which the core rhythm of the music repeats. Usually, a piece consists of multiple bars of the same length and players can easily refer to bar numbers to remember/explain their part. For example, ‘There’s a fill at the end of the 16th bar.’
At the beginning of the piece (top left) you will find a time signature. This tells you how many beats are in each bar and which note value constitutes one beat. The most common time signature is 4/4 which means four quarter notes in a bar. There are other time signatures that you will come across – 3/4, 5/4, 6/8, 7/8, 12/8 – but not as often.
You will also find the drum clef which is used for pitchless instruments and a tempo marking that tells you the speed of the music in beats per minute.
In drum notation, the note’s position and symbol indicates a particular drum or cymbal. You’ll find there isn’t a great deal of consistency in drum transcriptions and many authors and composers use their own system. It can get confusing for new readers but fortunately most books have a drum key at the front to tell you what all the symbols mean. It will look something like this:
Once you are familiar with the drum key you need to learn note values. That is, how long a note lasts. Drums are different from other instruments in that you don’t sustain the sound, instead you hit the drum or cymbal then rest for the remainder of the notes duration.
Here is a table of the most common note values:
In addition to notes, music and drum notation also include rests. These are silent spaces that you do not play. Which explains the name, rest.
You can stop for a quick cup of tea and then start playing again!
Here are many more symbols and commands that you will come across in your studies so here are a few examples and what they are asking you to do:
Drums are a repetitive instrument. Because of this, many bars in a song will have the same drum beat played over and over. When drums are notated out, repeat signs in bars are used as it stops us from having to right the same bar over and over every time it’s played.
Repeat bars are way more common in drums than they are in any other instrument.
Drum tabs are much easier to read than drum notation, especially to someone who doesn’t know how to read drum notation. Drum tabs will take a beat and map it out very clearly so that the person reading it will know exactly what to play on each count.
A drum tab will typically label each line so that you know which line is the snare and bass etc. People use drum tabs because they are quick and easy to understand. However, once you know how to read drum notation, it becomes more convenient to use as it offers more diversity and lets you expand on ideas.
In its most basic form, drum notation will tell you which drum to hit and how long to wait before you hit it. However, it can get way more in-depth than that and offer more direction for how to play. The directions come in the form of dynamic and technique markings.
An accent on a drum will typically be marked by a greater than symbol. When you see this on top of a note, it means you need to play the note louder than the other ones in the bar. You’ll typically see these accent signs when playing backbeats or strong off-beat rhythms on the hi-hat.
The opposite of an accent in drumming would be a ghost note. This refers to when you strike the drum incredibly softly. Ghost notes are indicated by a set of brackets around the note.
Ghost notes are most commonly played on the snare drum. However, they can be notated on other drums as well.
A flam is when you hit both hands together, but one hand will strike the drum slightly before the other. Flams are notated by having a smaller note in front of the main note. It’s important to know that the smaller note is attached to the main note and doesn’t hold any extra value in terms of counting in the bar.
A cross stick is when you lay your stick across the snare drum and hit the rim with the shaft of the stick. Cross sticks are sometimes referred to as rim clicks. They’re represented in notation by having an ‘x’ on the snare line.
Before we look at where the cymbals are placed and how to hit them, it’s important to know that many people don’t agree on cymbal notation, meaning it’s often different depending on where you’re reading it from!
A crash will typically be notated by having a circle around the ‘x’. It will sometimes be on top of the line while other times it will be written even higher on what is called a ledger line. When hitting a crash, you need to hit it diagonally instead of head-on as it will preserve the life of the cymbal. Cymbals that are hit straight-on will crack faster.
The hi-hat will always be marked as an ‘x’ above the top line on the staff. There are different ways to strike the hi-hat to produce different tones. Hitting the top of the hi-hat will give a subtle chick sound while hitting the shoulder will produce a more aggressive sound.
When notation tells you to choke the crash cymbal, it will usually just have the word ‘choke’ written underneath the staff. Choking the crash refers to when you hit it and then grab it with your hands straight afterward.
A china cymbal may be indicated by a similar cymbal to the crash, yet it will be placed on a higher ledger line. China cymbals are a lot more aggressive sounding than crash cymbals, meaning drummers don’t play them as often. You should hit them the same way you hit a crash in order to preserve the life of the cymbal.
Splash cymbals typically aren’t notated in drum notation. It’s generally up to the drummer to decide whether he hits a splash cymbal or a crash cymbal. As the splash cymbal is a lot smaller than other cymbals, there’s no other way to hit them other than head-on.
An open hi hat is represented by placing a small circle just above the hi-hat symbol in the notation. To play an open hi hat, you need to lift your foot off the pedal.
Loose hi hat notes will have either many small circles above the notes or the notation will have a label saying ‘trashy hi hats’. When playing these, make sure your foot isn’t too far off the pedal. It just needs to be loosely off to produce the loose sound.
Drum rolls are played on the snare drum. They’re typically referred to as buzz rolls. They’re notated with a small ‘z’ on the stem of the snare drum note. To play them, you need to buzz the sticks into the snare and alternate your hands.
An accented roll will be the same as a normal roll. However, it will have some sort of accent marking. The notation may tell you to start soft and get louder or vice versa.
Drum notation involves a series of symbols that hold time values and placements. Drums are unique compared to other instruments as they have their own notation. Where other instruments will read the same clefs to produce the same notes, drums make use of the percussion clef.
There are two main aspects of drum notation. The first is orchestration and the second is time values. Orchestration is where the drums are placed on the staff. Each drum and cymbal has a place and you need to play it when you see it at that place when reading.
Time value refers to how short or long certain notes are. As drums are often very busy within bars of music, we refer to different subdivisions as points of reference. The main subdivisions are quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes.
When reading music, it’s vital to take it slowly. The slower you play, the easier it is to read notation. Once you get accustomed to the parts you’re reading, then you can play it a little faster.
Counting out loud is one of the best ways to make sure you’re playing the notes properly and waiting long enough before playing the next note. Sometimes it helps to even write the counting above the notes on the sheet music.
If reading music becomes part of your regular practice routine, your reading abilities will improve drastically over time. The more you read, the better you’ll get at it.
Find full songs that have been transcribed and play along to them while following the sheet music. It’s a fun way of reading drum notation.
Find some music notation software and try to write drum parts out yourself. It’s a great way of figuring out how things are written.
Teaching is the best way to learn something. By teaching someone else to read sheet music, you’ll get a more firm grasp on it yourself.
Realize that reading drum sheet music isn’t a chore. It’s a useful tool to have that will get you very far in your musical journey. Have fun while reading and always seek to find some new materials to learn from.
Many drummers debate with themselves whether they need to learn how to read drum music. Our advice is to take the step and learn. You’ll be a better drummer for it. It will unlock pathways that you wouldn’t have had if you weren’t able to read music.
Whether it be the ability to learn new songs quickly or the potential for earning income from teaching others to read, sheet music reading should be a vital skill in any drummer’s arsenal.
Reading is a big area of study and gets difficult when you start working with more complex pieces of music. Now that you’ve got your head around the basics I would strongly recommend working with a proficient teacher for a while to advance your skills.
That’s how I got started with reading and it made an incredible difference to the way I study, play and teach. You will benefit more from the drum ninja site and from all the other learning resources that are out there.
Here are some study materials that will help you out:
Basics in Rhythm by Garwood Whaley
Syncopation by Ted Reed
Modern Reading Text in 4/4 by Louie Bellson
The New Breed by Gary Chester
Founder of TheDrumNinja
I’m crazy about drums, it’s been my passion since I was 12 years old. I played in numerous bands going through different styles like Rock, Progressive, Pop & Jazz-Rock. After being featured in major music publications (Drumeo, Guitar Guitar, AudioIssues, MusicThinkTank) I started this website to share my knowledge and create a resource for drummers of all levels.
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