Drumming Notation Lesson 4 So far we have only dealt with 4/4 time. There are several more time signatures that you can expect to run into. The most probable are 3/4, and 6/8 time. Who knows, you may even run into a 5/2 time signature. Just remember, the bottom number tells you what the note value of a beat is. The top number tells you how many of them it takes to make a measure. Three quarter time is used a lot in waltzes. The bottom line tells us that a 1/4 note has the value of one beat. The top line tells us there are three of them per measure. Think of it like a fraction. When you add up the values of all the notes and rests, it must add up to 3/4.
Six Eight time is fairly common for African, Caribbean and other rhythms. The 8 on the bottom tells us that an 1/8 note is equivalent to one beat. The 6 on the top tells us there are six 1/8 notes in a measure. Again, if you add up the values of all the notes and rests, they should equal 6/8.
Many of the West African rhythms we play get repeated over and over again. We can note that by the use of repeat signs. There is a left repeat sign and a right repeat sign. If both are used, when you get to the right repeat go back to the left repeat and start from there. The repeats may be several bars apart. If only the right repeat sign is used, you go back to the beginning.
I think the final thing I'm going to bring up is triplets. You may have noticed that all the numbers on the bottom of the time signature are divisible by 2. All the notes are divisible by 2. All the rests are divisible by 2. So, what if I want to divide up one beat into thirds. We don't have 1/3 notes, or 1/6
notes available to use. To get around this problem, three notes are grouped together by a line above them with a 3 written on the line to show that it is a triplet. Here is an example of an 1/8 note triplet.
I'll try to explain this in 4/4 time at 60 bpm: Remember we counted 1/4 notes by patting our foot on the floor in time to the clock ticking off seconds. We verbalized it as 1, 2, 3, 4 for one measure. Then we added 1/8 notes which divided our one second beat into 2. We verbalized it as 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & with our foot still patting out the beat on 1 2 3 4. Finally we added 1/16 notes which divided our one second beat into 4. We verbalized it as 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a 4 e & a. (The letter a sounds like uh) Now we're going to divide up our one second beat into 3. Start by just saying: 1 & a 2 & a 3 & a 4 & a in a steady rhythm. Then start patting your foot on the floor on the 1, 2, 3, 4. There, that wasn't so hard. Here is a rhythm with triplets thrown in. Just take your time and remember to keep a steady 1 2 3 4 beat going.
Note: This can also be written in this way:
Well, that's a basic introduction to music notation. There's a lot more to it than what I've presented so far. I've tried to include enough to get you started. I havn't studied music notation since I was in Junior High and High School. That was 40 some years ago. I apologize for any mistakes I may have made in the creation of these lessons.