How To Read Drum Sheet Music

The ability to read drum music is a useful skill both for performing as well as understanding the drums. In this series of lessons I’m going to start with the basics to reading drum sheet music. I’ll then expand these ideas and show you how to read more complex drum music for the drum set and snare drum. I’ll teach you how to read and interpret drum set charts and transcriptions. I’ll also teach you to write your own drum charts, beats, solos and ideas.

Section 1: Quarter Notes

1. The best way to learn to read drum sheet music is by playing written examples or exercises. With that in mind here is the first example.  This is a simple reading exercise in 4/4 time, also known as common time. It’s called common time for a very good reason. About 99% of all the songs you hear are in 4/4 time. This exercise uses 4 quarter notes per measure. 4/4 literally means four-fourth’s, or four quarter notes. Unlike the way we normally count, after we count up to four, we just start over. 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Each set of 4 counts is one measure. We will start by playing on the snare drum or practice pad only, as that’s easier to understand in the beginning. Every time you see a note, you’re going to count and play the note until you get to the end of the exercise.    

2. The above example is written for the snare drum – one drum. On the drum set things are a bit different because we have multiple drums as well as cymbals. The next example is written for the ride cymbal. Notice that the quarter notes are written with x’s. This is typical for cymbal notes. Also notice that there are multiple lines on the music. That’s to show you multiple instruments -snare drum, bass drum, cymbals, etc. This will become more clear as we go through more examples.

3. In the next example we have quarter notes on the high hat. The snare drum is playing along with the high hat on 2 and 4. Notice that the snare drum notes are written on the 2nd space down from the top. This is pretty standard. Cymbal notes are usually written above the staff (the lines) as shown here. The way cymbals are written can vary somewhat depending on the person writing the music, the program they used to notate the music, etc. Sometimes a ride cymbal is notated on the exact same line as you would normally see the high hat. Cymbal notation for the drum set is not completely standardized.

4. In this exercise the high hat cymbals are played in 2 and 4 with your foot. Notice that these notes are all the way at the bottom of the music. It’s very standard to write any notes played with the feet at the bottom of the music (the staff) like this.

Again, in this example the high hat is played on 2 and 4. What happen on counts 1 and 3? The squiggly marks on counts 1 and 3 are called quarter rests. Rests are silent. So this is telling you not to play your high hat on 2 and 4.

5. Here is a basic quarter note rock beat. The high hat plays on all 4 counts. (Note: Those notes could alternatively be intended for the ride cymbal instead. There’s really no way to know for sure, because as i mentioned earlier, cymbal notation is not necessarily standardized.)

The snare drum plays on 2 and 4. The bass drum plays on 1 and 3. Notice the bass drum is on the 1st space on the bottom. This is pretty standard. There are quarter rests on 2 and 4 to show you not to play the bass drum on those counts.

Section 2: 8^th Notes

1. In the last section I mentioned that 4/4 time literally means four-fourths or four quarter notes. There are 4 quarter notes in one measure of 4/4 time.

If we divide each quarter note into 2 equal parts, those are 8^th notes. So in a measure of 4/4 time, there are eight 8^th notes – two for every count in the measure. We count 8^th notes like 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and.

2. For the next exercise we’ll move the 8^th notes to the drum-set. The first measure starts with a crash cymbal on 1. The crash is usually notated above the high hat and ride cymbal on an extra line. This is called a ledger line. Again you may see a slight variation on some drum sheet music, as this isn’t completely standardized.

We continue the measure playing 8^th notes on the high hat. The bass drum is on 1 and 3, and the snare drum is on 2 and 4.

The second measure is a drum fill. It starts on the snare drum, moves to the small tom, back to the snare, and ends on the floor tom. The small tom is usually written on the top space and the floor tom is written on the 2^nd space from the bottom, above the bass drum.

Section 3: Repeats And Shorthand Symbols

1. In the previous example, notice the 2 small dots and 2 vertical lines at the end of the exercise. That is called a repeat sign. It just means play everything again from the beginning.

The first way of saving yourself time writing charts and transcriptions is to use repeat signs. This avoids the need to write out the same thing twice.

2. The next example demonstrates a one measure repeat. The first measure is a basic rock beat. The next 3 measures all contain a one measure repeat sign. So we play the beat a total of 4 times.

Again this keeps you from having to write the same thing 4x when creating a drum transcription or chart.

3. This is an example of slash notation. Each slash represents one count, one quarter note. Slash notation tells you to continue playing something similar to what you just played. So in this case you keep playing a similar rock beat, although it doesn’t have to be exactly the same. It can vary somewhat. If the beat you were playing was a shuffle, you’d continue playing a similar shuffle, etc.

Notice above count four it says, “fill.” You need to play some type of fill here, but it doesn’t specify and exact fill – just that it’s exactly one count, on count 4. It could be a different fill every time, which is how most drummers would actually play a song in live performance. A drum transcription notates exactly what was played or what is to be played. A drum chart is more of a guide. There is more room for improvisation.

When writing drum charts as well as some transcriptions, it’s common to use multiple short hand methods. So you might notate a couple of measures with slashes, a couple with one measure repeats, and a whole section of a song with a repeat sign. This save time writing. It’s also easier to read.

Section 4: Sixteenth Notes

1. So far we learned that in 4/4 time, there are 4 quarter notes in a measure. Each quarter note can be divided into 2 8^th notes. Each quarter note can also be divided into four 16^th notes. That’s two 16^th notes for every 8^th note.

Here is an exercise to teach how 16^th notes relate to quarter notes and 8^th notes.

2. Many times 16^th notes are combined with 8^th notes. For the next exercise we’ll put 16^th notes in a fill on the drum set on counts 3 and 4. notice that we’re using two 16^th notes in place of the first 8^th note on each count. This is a very common rhythm used in rock drumming.

3. The next example is similar but instead of putting 16^th notes on the first 8^th note of each count, we’re putting 16^th notes on the second 8^th note. Again this is a very common rhythm in rock drumming.

4. Now we’ll combine those two 16^th note rhythms into another fill.

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