How to drum Notation
How to read Drum Notation - Daily Drum Lesson
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hi my name is Mickey Hart welcome to
daily dramas today we're going to talk
about drum notation before we start
there is one thing I want to get out of
the way there is this old discussion
whether or not you should be able to
read and write notes or not because
there are countless of great and
successful drummers who don't know how
to read notes so why should you
all these drummers who don't know how to
read notes aren't great drummers because
they don't know how to read notes
they're great drummers despite the facts
they don't know how to do so it will
just make your life easier when I hear a
song on the radio with a drum powder
like I just write it down I don't have
to try to remember it what always never
works anyway I just write it down and
come back to it later when I have the
time or when I play with the band and
we're working on paths and someone says
hey I like that groove I write it down
and I'm done I don't have to waste
everyone's time by trying to memorize it
and play it over and over again until I
got it down I just write it down and can
practice it later and we are yet not
even speaking about the nearly unlimited
amount of great drum notation out there
you get access to as soon as you're able
to read it so go for it it will benefit
you it is not about being able to
sight-read it's about being able to see
a notation decipher it and then play it
so let's go these five lines are the
notation staff we will later fill it
with the actual notes but first we need
a clef which indicates the pitch of the
notes on our case the instrument we are
using this one for example would be used
for violin or guitar notation this one
would be used for bass and for drums and
percussion we use this one let's say we
want to write a piece of music which is
two bars long think of our piece of
music as a story and each bar as a
sentence so we put a bar line here and
one here these are like points to
indicate the end of a sentence and since
the second one is also the end of the
whole story we put this other one right
behind it now we need to define the
length of the bass and about 95% of the
this will be 4/4 which means we can fit
four quarter notes in one bar a quarter
note looks like this and since this is
4/4 we can fit four of these in each bar
one two three four one two three four
I wrote the notes right between the
second and the third line so this is
played on the snare if I wrote it here
it would be played on the tongue or here
it would be played on the floor top or
down here it would be played on the kick
if you have more terms you can also
write them on the lines instead of in
the spaces between them so you can write
another term right here and another
floor term right here to make things
easier to see all the cymbals are
notated with a cross instead of a dot
so the hi-hat is right here the ride
cymbal is right here and for the crash
we have to draw an extra line and put it
right here if we play the hi-hat with
the foot we notated way down here
now we try to make something cool of
what we have learned so far we keep this
idea with the tube a piece of music and
fill it with Hiatt strokes all the way
one two three four one two three four we
add some additional cakes and some
additional snails and play the whole
thing from left to right we start with
hired and kick hired and snare hired and
kick hired and snare and so on here we
go let's change this up a little by
moving all the highest roads in bar 2 to
the right cymbal let's move the very
last row to the Tom and floor Tom let's
play the crash instead of the hi-hat on
the very first stroke
[Music]
you see this isn't really that hard so
let's move on and introduce AIDS notes
we can play to AIDS notes in the time we
can play one quarter note so instead of
counting one two three four we count one
and two and three and four and if you
want to you can always combine the AIDS
notes that way it looks a bit cleaner
all right let's try this one bar of
quarter notes followed by one bar of
eighth notes
[Music]
let's orchestrate this to make the sound
a bit more musical for the first half we
play this quarter note roof we used
earlier for the second half we now play
an eighth note roof the snail stays
where it is on two and four the kick
stays world is on one and three and we
basically just double the tempo of the
hi-hat from quarter notes to eighth
notes
[Music]
[Music]
we can also orchestrate this 8's notepad
to make it sound like a fill
how about snare snare snare snare Tom
Tom floor Tom floor tom
[Music]
now we go one step further and divide
the AIDS notes once more to get
sixteenth notes so instead of counting
one-and two-and three-and four-and we go
one E and a two E and A three E and a
four E and and again we can join them
together to make things easier to read
here is one bar of eighth notes followed
by one bar of sixteenth notes it sounds
like this
let's try an orchestration this is the
same thing we did with the quarter and
eighth notes we play both bars as a
groove where the 1 and 3 is the kick and
the 2 and 4 is the snare but this time
instead of going from quarter two eighth
notes we go from 8 to 16 notes on the
hi-hat
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
let's orchestrate the sixteenth notes as
a film how about this this probably
looks familiar since it is the same
orchestration be used for the ADEs note
example first and second quarter on the
snare third quarter on the top and
fourth quarter on the floor tom
[Music]
you can also combine eighth and
sixteenth notes let's try two sixteenth
notes followed by one eighth note one B
and AH two E and AH three E and AH four
E and AH let's try
one bar of eighth notes followed by one
bar of this new combination
[Music]
let's orchestrate this the same way we
orchestrated all examples so far by
playing it on the hi-hat and adding the
kick on one and three and the snare on
two and four
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
[Music]
and here is the same thing as a fill
like we did in the previous examples
[Music]
another combination would be to play the
AIDS note first and then the two
sixteenth notes one-e-and ah two-e-and
ah three-e-and ah four-e-and ah let's
hear how that sounds
[Music]
let's try this as a group as well we
move the whole rhythm to the hi-hat play
the kick on one and three and the snare
on two and four
[Music]
and here is the new rhythm as a fill
first two quarters on the snare followed
by the tongue and the float on
[Music]
all right there is one thing I didn't
talk about so far and that is rests each
node has a corresponding rest that
indicates that we don't play anything at
all I don't want to go in too much
detail here but I would just want to
give you a quick overview let's look at
quarter note rests first we play three
quarter notes followed by one quarter
note rest so we got one two three four
one two three four here is how that
sounds at the kid in context with a
groove
[Music]
this is an example for AIDS note rests
one and two and three and four and one
and two and three and four and let's
bring it to the set and last but not
least sixteenth note rests one-e-and ah
two-e-and ah three-e-and ah four-e-and
ah one-e-and ah two-e-and ah three-e-and
ah four-e-and ah and again we bring it
to the set
[Music]
all right that's it for today and I know
there is lots of stuff we didn't cover
yet I just wanted to keep this real
simple to give you the possibility to
start and don't overwhelm you with too
much information but this should help
you to make it through a lot of good
drum notation thank you ever so much for
watching if you like this video please
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over here are some more videos for you
to check out and I see you next time bye
bye
