How to Read Drum Music Notes
In most respects, drum music is exactly like any other kind of sheet music. As in all sheet music, time signatures tell the musician how to count the measures and notes and rests show when to play each individual note. The main difference is that instead of showing different pitches the different lines and spaces show the musician how to play different drums.
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Instructions
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1
Learn about notes and rests. A note shows you when to play a beat and a rest shows you how long to go without playing a beat. Notes come in whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eight notes and sixteenth notes. One whole note takes the same amount of time to play as two half, four quarter or eight eighth notes. So quarter notes are played four times as fast as whole notes. Rests also come in whole, half, quarter and eighth, and are related to each other in the same way. There are also thirty-second and sixty-fourth notes and rests, but they are rare.
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2
Learn the meaning of dotted notes and rests. If there is a dot on the right side of a note, it takes one and a half times as long as normal. For example, a dotted whole note is as long as six quarter notes instead of the normal four.
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3
Learn about accents. An accent looks like a triangle directly above a note. It means that that particular note is louder than the other ones around it.
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4
Learn how to read time signatures and measures. A measure is a set unit of time. It is marked off by vertical lines. A time signature is a ratio of the number of notes per measure to the length of each note. For example, 4/4 means that there are four notes in each measure, and each note is a quarter note.
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5
Learn basic drum music conventions. Each drum is written on a different line or space of the staff. If there are three drums without any explanation, the one on the bottom is the bass drum, the one in the middle is the snare and the one on the top line is the hi-hat. If there are more drums, there will be a key explaining which line represents which drum.
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