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Reading drum music unlocks every chart, lesson book, and transcription out there. Drum notation looks like regular sheet music, but each line and space of the staff is assigned to a piece of the kit instead of a pitch. Here is everything you need to start reading.
Drums use the standard five-line staff with a neutral (percussion) clef. From the bottom up, the common placements are:
| Drum / cymbal | Where it sits | Notehead |
|---|---|---|
| Bass (kick) | Bottom space | Normal |
| Snare | Middle (3rd) space | Normal |
| Hi-hat (closed) | Above the top line | x |
| Hi-hat with foot | Below the staff | x |
| Ride cymbal | Top space | x |
| Crash | Above top line | x (often circled) |
| Toms | Upper spaces/lines | Normal |
Cymbals use an x notehead; drums use a normal oval notehead. Stems for the hands point up, the kick drum stem points down, so hands and feet are easy to separate at a glance.
Many online lessons use a simple grid instead of a staff. It is the same idea, one row per voice, one column per subdivision:
Read it left to right, top to bottom on each column: on beat 1 the kick and hi-hat play together; on beat 2 the snare and hi-hat play, and so on.
The fastest way to connect symbols to sound is to watch a pattern play. In Practice Mode the sequencer lights each step as it plays, so you can match the grid to what you hear in real time.
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