drumkit beginners

Drum music, like most other music is written on 5 lines known as the staff, or stave. Each instrument in the kit has its own place on the staff. At the beginning of the staff is a sign called a clef which looks like this:



This tells us the notes on the staff are notes for percussion, as opposed to any other instrument.

The Drums


The snare and the bass drums sit in the spaces in between the lines.



While the three toms each sit on a separate line:




The Cymbals


Finally, the cymbals are shown with crosses as follows (N.B. there are several different ways of notating cymbals - you may find them written differently elsewhere).




Rhythm

The next thing we need to understand before we get down to some playing is how to read the rhythm.

The length of a note is measured by counting.

A crotchet note lasts for 1 count and looks like this:



so five crotchets on the snare drum in a row will look like this:






A minim lasts for 2 counts and looks like this:



so four minims on the snare drum will look like this:



Click on the play button to hear the minims played on snare, together with a background tick for the counts (there are 4 counts introduction before the snare starts).


Finally, a semibreve lasts for 4 counts and looks like this:




so four semibreves on the snare drum in a row will look like this:



Click on the play button to hear the 4 semibreves played on snare, together with a background tick for the counts (again, there are 4 counts introduction before the snare starts).


Bars

Music is grouped into groups of counts known as bars. The first type of bar we will see is 4/4, written:

which means there are 4 crotchet counts in each bar. Below is an example of two bars written in 4/4 time. The first bar contains 4 crotchets, each lasting for one count. The second bar contains a semibreve which lasts for 4 counts, and so, occupies the entire bar.

The groups of 4 counts are separated by vertical lines known as bar-lines. A double bar-line signifies the end of a piece.

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