How to read drum set music

Drum set music uses a five-line staff, but the lines and spaces aren't pitches. Each one is a different drum or cymbal. In the layout this guide uses, notes with stems up are for your hands and notes with stems down are for your feet. Here's a short drum set part with every mark numbered. Tap a number in the list to jump to what it means, or press play to hear it.

A drum set part, labeled

Where each drum and cymbal goes

The percussion clef, two thick lines, tells you the staff is for drums. From there, the drums run up the staff the way they sound: bass drum at the bottom, then floor tom, snare, and the two higher toms. Cymbals sit at the top. Tap each note to hear it.

Many band books and charts use this layout, but publishers don't all agree. You may see the bass drum on the bottom line or below the staff, the hi-hat on the top line, or the hi-hat pedal above the staff. Many drum parts print a key at the top of the first page, so check for one before you play, and go by the key when it differs from this one.

Round notes and x notes

The notehead tells you what you're hitting. Round notes are drums: snare, toms, and bass drum. X notes are cymbals: hi-hat, ride, and crash. Rhythm works the same either way. Two x's joined by a beam are eighth notes, just like two round ones.

The hi-hat has two extra marks. An o over a note means open: lift your foot a little so the two cymbals ring against each other. A + marks the note where it closes again: press the pedal back down as you play it. Hi-hat notes with no mark are played closed. That's how the examples on this site mark the hi-hat; some parts use only the o and leave the closing to you, so check the key.

The ride and the hi-hat are one step apart: the ride's x is on the top line, and the hi-hat's is in the space above it. Parts often write "Ride" or "H.H." above the staff when you switch, but check the x itself too.

Hands up, feet down

In the examples here, a drum set part is two parts on one staff. The hands have stems up: cymbals, snare, and toms. The feet have stems down: bass drum and the hi-hat pedal. Each part has its own beams and rests. This two-part layout is common, but it isn't the only one: some parts put the snare with the bass drum in the lower part, and some put everything on one set of stems.

Notes lined up in the same column are played at the same time. Use Hands and Feet to hear each part alone:

• Two noteheads on one stem sound at the same moment. In this example, that's the ride and the snare on beat 2: on this kit, the right hand plays the ride and the left plays the snare. The notation shows what sounds together, not which hand plays it.
• Count each part on its own. In this example, each part fills the bar. Many printed parts leave out rests to keep the page clean, so if a part seems short, check whether its rests were left out before you decide you've misread it.

Try it

Which drum or cymbal is it? Check the notehead first, then the line or space, then the stem.

Reading a beat one layer at a time

Don't try to read every note at once. Read a beat one layer at a time, counting out loud: "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &." Step through this one:

That's the basic rock beat. Many beginner rock and pop beats use the same three parts with a few bass drum or snare notes moved; other styles are built differently. Ten beats are in common drum beats. On a new beat, read down each column, the way you'd read a chord: what does each hand and foot play on this count?

Fills and the crash

A fill changes the groove for a moment, usually at the end of a phrase, while the beat keeps going underneath, and leads into the next phrase. Fills often move around the toms, and the toms read like a staircase: high tom in the top space, mid tom on the fourth line, floor tom in the second space. Higher on the staff sounds higher.

In rock and pop, many fills end on beat 1 of the next bar with the crash and the bass drum together, as this example does. On that beat, the crash takes the hi-hat's place. A fill can also lead straight back into the beat with no crash.

Repeats and slashes

Drum parts save space with a few shorthand marks:

• One-bar repeat (a slash between two dots): play the bar before again. Some parts number these bars so you don't lose count.
• Two-bar repeat: the same sign with two slashes, written across a bar line. Play the last two bars again.
• Slashes, one per beat: keep playing in the style of the song. You'll often see "Time" written above them. With "Fill" above, make up your own fill that lasts that long.

In jazz band and pep band charts, you'll also see small notes above the staff. Those show rhythms the band plays together. They tell you what the band is doing so you can choose how to support it: play some of the rhythm with the band, set it up, or keep time underneath. They aren't a list of notes you have to play. See how to read a drum chart for the choices.

Read a beat on your own

Before you play, take it in three steps:

• Count it out loud: "1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &."
• Read the feet first, then the hands. Use Feet and Hands to check each part.
• Play it slowly, then check yourself with the play button.

Practice

Reading drum set is mostly reading rhythm quickly. Build that in Rhythm Trainer in 4/4, then read notation in Rudiment ID, which drills rhythm and sticking together. Then play the beats on the drum set in Percussion Trainer, which marks each hit early, late, or on time. On a real kit, use the metronome at a slow tempo, and speed up only when every hand and foot lines up.