Drumming Notation Lesson 1 Learning to read drum music notation can seem really daunting. I'm hoping to simplify that process a little bit. The first thing we need to define is a bar, also known as a measure. A bar is a defined segment (measure) of time. Time is expressed as beats per minute. More importantly, we need to know how many notes to place in our bar. The time signature gives us that information. A common time signature is expressed as four four time. The top number, (in this case the number 4), tells us how many beats per measure. If a song is played at the rate of 60 beats per minute, and there are 4 beats per measure, then each bar is equivalent to 4 seconds. The bottom number tells us the fractional value of one beat. In 4/4 time, the bottom number is a 4, therefore the value of one beat is a quarter note. In 4/4 time, four quarter notes would take up a whole measure. Recall the 4/4 time signature defines a measure as 4 quarter notes. Here are more notes and their fractional value.
There are four quarter notes in a whole note. There are two quarter notes in a half note. There are two eighth notes in a quarter note. There are four sixteenth notes in a quarter note. In our 4/4 time signature example: Since there are four quarter notes per measure, and a whole note has a value of four quarter notes, we can place one whole note in a measure and nothing else. Since there are two quarter notes in a half note, we can place two half notes in a measure and nothing else. We can place 8 eighth notes or 16 sixteenth notes in a measure as well. Since we know the value of one measure is 4 quarter notes or 1 whole note, we can split up a measure like slicing a pie. We could have one 1/4 note, two 1/8 notes, one 1/4 note, and four 1/16 notes. Note: A single line between notes represents 1/8 notes and two lines between notes represents 1/16 notes. We can slice up the measure anyway we want as long as its value equals 4 quarter notes. To do the math for the above example. 1/4 + 1 /8 + 1/8 + 1/4 + 1/16 +1/16 +1/16 +1/16 = 1 That's enough to think about in the first lesson. When you're ready click on lesson #2.