How Do You Read Tabs for the Drums?
Drum tablature (Tab) is a combination of standard drum notation and other markings designed to give drummers who don't read standard notation an easier way to read music written for the drums. There is no standard for drum tab, since the symbols used can vary depending upon the author of the drum tablature in question. There are, however, basic notation principles for drum tab you can learn to help give you the ability to read any drum tab notation you come across.
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Instructions
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Review the lines used for drum tab notation. The number will vary, depending upon the size of the drum set the tab was written for. The lines are horizontal and each of them represent a piece of the drum kit. The name of the drum piece each of these lines represent is indicated at the beginning of each line with initials. A typical set up may be (from the lowest line to the top line) bass drum (BD), floor tom (F), tom 2 (T2), tom 1(T1), snare drum (SN), ride cymbal (RD), hi-hat (HH) and crash cymbal (CC).
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Read and memorize these symbols. A small o is a drum strike. When this letter is on the hi-hat, it tells you to play the hi-hat open. Xs are strikes as well. A capital X tells you to strike whatever drum the letter indicates by line placement. If the X is on a crash cymbal, you should hit the crash cymbal hard. An f indicates a flam, d indicates a drag technique, and the @ indicates a snare rim shot. A + sign indicates the count of the beats. Since there are variations of these tab symbols, depending upon the tab you read, keeping a primer on hand until you memorize them all can be helpful.
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Read rhythms in drum tab the same as you read rhythm in standard music notation. A whole note is four beats (based on 4/4 time), a half note is two beats, a quarter note is one beat, an eighth note is a half beat. In drum tab, the stems for the notes are attached to the drum tab symbols to indicate the timing of the beats.
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