How to Read Drum Notation

Series Summary

The drum is the oldest known musical instrument in the history of man and its basic design has not changed in thousands of years. Far from today’s uses as a percussive foundation for pop music or for fueling marching band excitement, drumming has a more profound history as a method of communication, and the drum as an implement of religious symbolism. The drum was perhaps first created from the primal idea of mimicking the human heartbeat, yet today its music has developed into a technical, complex arrangement of beats and grooves. Different sized drums and cymbals are arranged into kits, where a drummer can pick from a variety of sounds to lead or accompany a particular song. Kit sizes vary from the simple to the outrageous.

The modern approach to drumming is to try and master the fundamentals of beat and time signature, and then to create fresh, innovative patterns and fills for each song. In this free instructional video series you will learn how to play several contemporary drum beats. Our expert, Ryan Larson, shares techniques for writing drum beat notation, adding fills, offers tips and advice on how to begin the process and walks you through some great informational steps to becoming a more advanced drummer and musician as you become able to write out your beats.

Video Transcript

"So today we're going to look at a piece in D-flat Major and if you click on the link that is given at the top of the site, this song will come up. It's on my website. You can print it out so you can follow along at home and I'll go through and notate some of the different notes on here. But, we're going to go through and we're really going to look at the different rhythms for each section of the tune every two measures I spot light at different rhythms so if you just want to go through quick and learn your rhythms so you can go site read on your own that cool or if you want to take and go through the whole lines and play and learn these tunes as well, it a good thing for you to go down and get your chops. I'm going to show you how to analyze the tunes so you can site read through it a lot quicker and we read in patterns so by reading in patterns, it makes life a lot easier too. So, we have this simple piece here and again you want to print this out at home or you can just follow along on this screen. You can do it by ear as well and it will be great for you to get your chops down and learn these different rhythms and these different rest and how to play them."