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Learning How To Read Drum Notes Is Like Eating Pie...When new drummers think about how to read drum notes they usually get that look of a deer in headlights. Drum music, also know as charts, rudiments, syncopation exercises and other terminology, shares many characteristics to piano music. The main characteristic is that they share 'staff' lines. Those are the five lines upon which the music is written. For this segment, I will concentrate on a very basic principle. For those of you who are visual by nature the following explanation should help you: Think of drum notes as an apple pie. ...for this example, one bar or one pie is equal to four beats also known as four quarter notes and is called four four timing or 4/4. 1. The whole note: The whole apple pie, or in drum beats terms, one hit or one big piece of pie, the whole pie. 2. The half note: Half of the pie, or in drum beats terms, two hits or two pieces of the pie, two halves of the pie. 3. The quarter note: A quarter of the pie, or in drum beats terms, four hits or four pieces of the pie, each piece represents a beat or a hit. Start visualizing this concept in your head and the next time you look at a drum chart or a syncopation exercise you will have a much better grasp of what you are looking at.
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