How do you read drum notes?

Answer 1

Drum notes are the same as other instruments except for the fact that you don't usually have any actual notes like C or E#. Just get instructions on how to read rythmns. Whole Note Shaped like a hollow oval with no stick. Half Note Lasts half as long as a whole note, and is shaped like hollow oval with a stick. Quarter Note Lasts half as long as a half note, and shaped like filled oval with a stick. Eighth Note Lasts half as long as a quarter note, and shaped like filled oval with a stick and a tail. Sixteenth Note Lasts half as long as an eighth note, and has two tails. Further halving of note lengths, to indicate 32nd and 64th notes etc., is written by adding more tails. Eighth Note This is another way to write adjacent eighth notes by connecting the tails. Similarly 16th notes will have two horizontal, 32nd notes will have three lines, etc. Sixteenth Note Connected 16th notes. Eighth Triplet Notes These notes occupy the same time frame as two eighth notes, and are written similarly, but there are three of them with the numeral 3 writen above. Similarly, there are quarter triplets, 16th triplets, 32nd triplets, etc. Each dot-and-stick or x-and-stick represents a note (sound). Music notation for other instruments, such as the piano, indicates the pitch of the note by the position of the dot on the five horizontal lines, called a staff. The higher the dot, the higher the pitch. In drum notation, the note's position on the staff indicates a particular drum or a cymbal. Cymbal notes are often written with X's instead of dots, but not always so. There is no universally accepted way of positioning specific drums or cymbals, but it is generally accepted that the bass drum is written at the bottom, the snare somewhere in the middle, and the hi-hat and cymbals up top. Sometimes, a piece of drum notation will be accompanied by a reading key that percicely indicatas the positioning of the various percussion sounds on the staff. In common drum set music, as in the figure above, it is generally understood that the notes from top to bottom are hi-hat, snare, bass. The timing of each sound depends on the progression of the notes from left to right. It's almost as if there is an imaginary cursor going steadily from left to right on the staff and hitting each sound in turn. There is a little bit more to that, but in order to understand how to tell the timing of each note percicely I'll indroduce the concept of time signatures first. The 4/4 symbol on the left is called a time signature. The time signature indicates how much time and how many beats are is in a measure. A measure is a slice of time in which the fundamental rhythm of the music repeats, although the notes are not generally the same. In music and drum notation each measure is separated by a vertical line. You can see that the first figure has two measures. 4/4 indicates that there are four quarter notes in a measure. The quarter is relative to a time unit called a whole note. This unit is not an absolute length of time (such as 10 seconds) but rather relative to how fast the song is played. Mathematically saying that there are four quarters in a measure is the same as saying there is one whole note in a measure, but musically it's different. For example, in the first figure above you can see that the bass and snare form a four note beat in a measure, and therefore it is more convenient to think of each measure as having four quarter notes and not one whole note. The time signature indicates a conceptual, fundamental beat in the music and the actual notes won't usually repeat exactly. The 4/4 time signature is the most common in popular music, but other time signatures are certainly used, such as 3/4, 8/8, 6/8, and 5/4. The time signature indicates how much "time" fills a measure, and that time is filled by notes. The shape of a note indicates how long it lasts. In percussion there's typically no ability to sustain a sound, therefore, drum notes of a specific length actually mean hitting the drum (or cymbal, etc.) at the beginning, and doing nothing for the rest of the notes' duration

Answer 2

TO drum, grab a pair of sticks and hit the drum only using your wrists. Hit the drum however you count.Example- a quarter note is worth 1 beat, so you hit the drum once, and hold it out for 1 beat.

Answer 3

CONFIGURATION

In a standard set of tenor quads the drum configuration from right (being the biggest) to left is 4-2-1-3. Just so we're clear drum 1 has the highest pitch as well as the smallest shell, and the shells get larger while the pitch gets deeper progressing towards 4. If looking down upon your beautiful set of tenors it would look like: 4-2-1-3

Now that you understand the configuration of the drums It's time to apply what we know to sheet music.

READING MUSIC

In a standard music staff with four rows:

Drum 1's notes are located on the uppermost spacewithin the staff.

(between the top two lines)

Drum 2's notes are located on the 2nd space from the top of the staff.

Drum 3's notes are located on the 3rd from top.

Drum 4's notes are located on the bottom space.

(between the bottom two lines)

(In case of confusion, the highest pitch drum is at the top of the staff and the lowest pitch is at the bottom. Go figure!)

All notes encountered on tenor music are the same as any other instrument: quarter note, half note, whole note, eighth note, sixteenth note. As well as common drum notation: dashes for diddles, "Z" for buzz roll, "X" for rim shot

If a set of tenors has 5 drums, the 5th drum is the smallest drum with the highest pitch, and the 4-2-1-3 configuration stays the same.

In this situation, the 5th drum's notes are located above the uppermost line of the staff

TIPS

Terms:

Crossover

Sweeps

BE SURE TO PLAY IN THE PROPER ZONES! The area in which the drumstick strikes should be in between the rim and a few inches away from the center of the drum head. If you haven't already, try hitting the center of the head, then the outer edge, and notice the difference. Tenors are designed to have high pitch resonant sounds, nothing sounds worse than a clunky tenor drum.

Sometimes the writer will throw the tenor player a curve ball and have the player "crossover" or an opportunity to "sweep." To perform a crossover the player crosses one arm over top the other in order to play a drum. Sweeping is when a player plays a diddle with each stroke on a different drum (typically the two are adjacent.) Both of these techniques take much practice, DON'T BE AFRAID TO CONSULT OTHER DRUMMERS on tips to help master them!

For instance: A player's must play a triplet on drums 2-4-2. (seems easy at first: right hand = 2, left hand = 4, right hand = 2) BUT your right hand must play a note on drum 3 right before, meaning your left hand must play drum 2. Essentially you must play 3-2-4-2 fairly quickly, this writer must be crazy!

First solution: play drum 3 with your right hand, drum 2 with the left, CROSS YOUR RIGHT ARM OVER YOUR LEFT to hit drum four, then finish your spectacular show with your left hand playing drum 2. (right = 3, left = 2, right = 4, left = 2)

Second solution: Instead of playing right, left, right, left in the above solution, the player could sweep across drums 2 and 4 with the left hand and finish up with the right. (right = 3, left = 2, left = 4, right = 2, Brilliant!)

Answer 4

My freind who is a professional drummer says you need to be able to read music (general) before you can read it

Answer 5

It's not to bad and it is easy. The higher it is on the staff the higher the drum you hit.

Answer 6

When you are tuning your drums, use a cheap tuner like you would use for a bass, or guitar. Ask whoever you are playing with what key to tune to.

Answer 7

you go note by note and play both strings