![]() We saw that each drum and cymbal has its position in the staff. It’s like reading a book one sentence at a time, rather than the whole thing at once. The whole piece is broken into 300 bars, each of which has 4 beats in it.Īs a drummer, with a 4-beats-to-the-bar time signature, you only ever need to count the beat in each bar as you’re playing. So, imagine you have a piece of music that has 1200 beats in it. ![]() In a piece labeled 4-beats-to-the-bar, you’ll only ever have the four notes or drums to play in each bar. What’s a bar in drum sheet music? Concept 4 - BarsĪ bar is like a musical period, but in music, a bar is signified by…well, by a bar – a vertical line cutting down through the staff, dividing the piece into ‘sentences’ of music - bars. The top number though is the number of beats to the bar. Next to the Clef will be something that looks like a fraction – two numbers, one on top of the other.įor now, don’t worry about the bottom number. The symbol’s called a Clef, and the most likely for drum sheet music is a Treble Clef, which looks like an ‘and’ sign (&) had a curvy makeover. The what-now?īig symbol, usually at the start of the staff. But…when? First of all – check the time signature. So you know what drums to play when you read each symbol. If you need a visual cue for which note belongs on which line or space, they more or less conform to the various heights of the drums and cymbals themselves. Unless otherwise stated, always play the Hi-hat. The Hi-hat and the Ride sit on the same line too. The Hi-hat Foot and the Bass drum occupy the same space on the staff – but you can easily tell which to hit, because the drum is a dot and the cymbal is an X. Hi-hat or Ride: The space on top of the top line of the staff.Ĭrash: The X is placed where the next line up from the top of the staff would be – and crossed through, as though intersected by that line.Hi-hat Foot: First space at the bottom.Mid Tom: Fourth line up from the bottom.Bass: First space at the bottom of the staff.All the drum notes are placed in spaces – bar the rebellious mid tom. Cymbals (including hi-hats) are represented as Xs. Drums are represented as regular notes – usually black dots. Easy, right? Concept 2 - The Drum Key, or Where To Place Your NotesĪ drum kit is composed of drums and cymbals. Their vertical placement will tell you which drum or cymbal you’re hitting. Running left to right, their horizontal placement will tell you which notes come before others. Once you have your staff, there’s one key piece of knowledge you need.Īll the notes will be marked on the staff. With a pencil and a ruler, you can make your own staffs on any blank piece of paper too. ![]() That leaves four spaces between the lines that make up the staff. Five lines, each equidistant, one after the other. Block off any five parallel lines in a ruled notebook. With the right notation, everything that can possibly be played, can be played on the staff. The staff or stave is the visual representation of the universe of music. Commit to that much, and we can get you the rest of the way. There are some concepts to get your head around. So how do you read and write drum sheet music? We’ve got you covered. But of course, sheet music exists for drums just as it exists for other instruments, and once you’ve learned to read and write it, it’s a skill that will put you head and shoulders above many drummers.
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