Musical Notes

Contents

Musical notes can appear in three basic shapes in written drum music. X’s represent cymbals and hi hats, Diamonds represent the bells of cymbals, and circles indicate the rest of the drum set, snare, bass and toms.

Bass Drum Notes

The bass drums are most often shown on the bottom space of the staff. If two bass drums are used, the second will appear on the bottom line.

Snare Drum

The snare is always placed on the second empty space. It may sometimes be represented with an X or an X in parentheses. In the case of a single X it indicates you should play a cross-stick note. When the X is in parentheses, it usually means it is a ghost note.

Rack Toms and Floor Toms

The first four notes are where rack toms can appear. The most common drumsets that only use two mounted toms will be shown on the second and third lines, although this can change depending on the composer. The last two notes represent floor toms and appear on the third space or fourth line.

Cymbals and Hi Hat

Cymbals appear as X’s on the staff. In the picture above they are in order of appearance, ride, crash, splash and china. The last two notes are hi hat notes. When it appears at the top of the staff, it should be played with your sticks. When placed below the staff it should be played with the foot pedal.

Cymbal Bells

When notes are represented by a diamond, it is indicating that you should play on the bell of the cymbal. The placement of cymbals is the same as above, so the notes above are: ride bell, crash bell, splash bell and china bell. Chinas don’t really have bells, but I thought I’d include it just as an example.

Now that you know the musical notes, you’re ready to tackle drum sheet music.

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