How to Read Drum Sheet Music: Notes, Rhythms and Practice

Drum sheet music is written on a five-line staff, but each line and space stands for a different drum or cymbal, not a pitch. The bass drum sits near the bottom, the snare in the middle, and cymbals go on top with an "x" in place of a round note head. Once you know where each piece lives and how to count the rhythm, you can read most beginner grooves. You can then practice by playing along with a song that has its drums removed, using the Drum Remover.

The staff and the clef

At the start of the staff you will see two short vertical bars. This is the percussion clef, and it tells you the lines are not notes in a scale. Next to it is a time signature, most often 4/4, which means four beats in every bar and a quarter note gets one beat.

Each bar is a box of time. You fill the box with notes and rests, and when the bar ends you start the next.

Where each drum goes

Most charts follow the same layout, with the feet low on the staff and the hands higher up:

Cymbals use an "x" note head so you can spot them at a glance. A small circle above a hi-hat note usually means open, and a "+" means closed. Different publishers draw things a little differently, so look for a key or legend at the start of the page. It tells you what each line means.

Stems help too. Notes played with the hands usually have stems pointing up, and notes played with the feet have stems pointing down. This lets two parts share one staff and stay readable.

Counting the rhythm

Counting turns the page into time. In 4/4, you count each bar as "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and". The numbers are the beats. The "and" is the half-way point between them, which makes eighth notes.

For sixteenth notes you split each beat in four and count "1 e and a, 2 e and a". Write the counting under a bar in pencil the first few times. It feels slow, but it is the fastest way to stop guessing.

Rests are silence and count too. A quarter rest lasts one beat, an eighth rest lasts half a beat. A groove sounds right when the rests are as exact as the notes.

A first groove, step by step

Here is the standard rock beat in words:

1. The hi-hat plays every eighth note: "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and".
2. The bass drum plays on beats 1 and 3.
3. The snare plays on beats 2 and 4.

Read that off the page and you will see a line of "x" notes on top, a note on the bottom space on 1 and 3, and a note on the middle space on 2 and 4. Learn it with only the hi-hat and snare first, then add the foot.

Playing electric drums: crash and ride

Many people reading drum charts today practice on an electronic kit. The pads work much like real cymbals, with a few differences.

• Crash. Hit the crash pad near the edge with the shoulder of the stick, the part a little back from the tip. Crashes are usually written as one note at the start of a section.
• Ride. Play steady notes on the main part of the ride pad, called the bow, with the tip of the stick. Many ride pads have a separate zone for the bell, which gives a sharper ping.
• Choke. On many pads you can grab the edge right after a hit to cut the sound off. This copies what a drummer does with a real cymbal.

How many zones a pad has depends on the kit, so check the manual of yours. If a chart has crash and ride mixed with hi-hat, play slowly until you know which pad each "x" points to.

Practice with a real song

Reading a page is one thing. Hearing a groove in a real recording is where it clicks. This is where stems help.

1. Isolate the drums. Upload a song to the Drum Remover and download the Drums only file. Follow the chart while you listen to what the drummer actually played. Our test run on a 3 minute 22 second song took 88 seconds.
2. Play along without the drummer. Download the Without the drums file and play your part over the rest of the band. Most tools on Unmix Studio cost 1 credit per minute of song, and the price shows on the button first. New accounts get 5 free credits.
3. Split the kit if you need to. The Drum Kit Splitter breaks the drums into kick, snare, toms, hi-hat, ride and crash. Listening to the hi-hat alone makes it easy to tell whether the pattern is eighths or sixteenths.

Drum separation is good but not perfect. Very dense or live recordings can leave traces of the drums in the other file, and the cymbals are the hardest to tell apart from one another.

Common mistakes

• Rushing the fills. Fills often use more notes in the same time. Count out loud, even when you feel silly.
• Ignoring the rests. Silence is part of the groove.
• Reading too fast. Start slow enough to play every bar without a stumble. Raise the speed a little each day.

Only practice with songs you have the right to use. Private practice is fine, but sharing a recording of the drums or the backing track may need permission.

FAQ

How do you read drum sheet music for beginners?

Learn the percussion clef, find where the kick, snare and hi-hat sit, and count the beats aloud. Start with a simple rock groove before moving to fills.

What does the x mean in drum notation?

An "x" note head marks a cymbal, such as hi-hat, ride or crash. Round note heads are for drums.

How do I hit a crash and a ride on electric drums?

Strike the crash pad near the edge with the shoulder of the stick. Play the ride on its bow with the tip, and use the bell zone if your pad has one.

Can I practice drums to a song without the drums?

Yes. Upload the song to the Drum Remover and download the Without the drums file. Then play your part over the other instruments.

Is drum notation the same everywhere?

Mostly. The basic layout is common, but some charts place toms or pedal hi-hat in slightly different spots. Check the legend on the page.