Reading drum music is something we will be covering as the lessons progress. As a beginner, I think it is important that you recognize the basics and at least know what to look for when you see a written piece of drum music.

Most contemporary music is in 4\4, which means there are four beats to every bar of music. Thus counting 1,2,3,4, represents one bar, FIG1 is an example of this with the four notes being played on the bass drum.

Most music that is written for drums will have a diagram at the beginning showing you which staff line represents which piece of the kit. In my experience it is usually the toms that can vary with the rest of the kit basically being in the same position every time.

The following example is the basic beat, from lesson one, with each part of the kit marked.

NOTE The high\hats are playing eighth notes, 1and 2 and 3 and 4 and, thus they are joined together by a line. The bass drum and snare are playing quarter notes. The toms at the end of this piece are playing sixteenth notes and are joined by two lines.   

Figure 1

Reading From Audio Drum Lesson 2

Following is some drum music staff from the audio lesson 2. You will notice some of the bars have been drawn out longer in length. This is so the symbols are not clustered, making it easier to read.

This section is taken from the windows audio rack time reading  from 007.02.6 to 007.46.5

In other words when listening to lesson 2 and looking at you windows audio rack time counter, 007.02.6 is  the start of  the staff clip and 007.46.5 is the end.