Quarter Notes

Contents

In this lesson, I’ll cover quarter notes, the most basic note value you will use in drumming. You’ll use it most often to understand time signatures such as 3/4 or 4/4. I’ve covered quarters and how they determine time signatures here.

Note Exercises

A quarter is the basic note value assigned in common 4/4 time. There are 16 possible variations of these notes and rests. Below you’ll find them all in notation.

Play through each exercise and move on to the next. Try to play them all straight through without pausing between exercises. You’ll notice Ex. 16 isn’t really an exercise(at least not in the sense that you’ll have to play anything), but I included it just so you could see all the possible combinations.

The nice thing about exercises like these is that you don’t need an instrument to practice them. This is more about getting timing down that it is about playing notes.

When my son started learning how to read music, we just clapped our hands to the beats. It’s a simple way to learn about how to read notes. Once he mastered wholes, quarters, and eighths, we were ready to break out the drums and try it on his snare.

Quarter Notes Exercise 2