You now know how to read drum sheet music with both crotchets and quavers. I know you’re ready to get started learning drum sheet music and I promise it’s on its way! 7. Don’t worry, it doesn’t mean you have to take an exam! Every rest makes the notes surrounding it stand out more to the listeners’ ears. Use Guitar Pro to speed up your progress – It’s so useful to have the notes on the page brought to life using software like Guitar Pro. The easiest note value to get the hang of is the crotchet. So how do we know that what we’re reading is drum sheet music?eval(ez_write_tag([[336,280],'beatsure_com-banner-1','ezslot_3',109,'0','0'])); Let’s face it, we’re going to look a bit silly trying to drum our way through a bassoon solo or a Spanish guitar melody if that’s what the sheet music was intended for. You can continue this sequence by adding one more flag and doubling the number of notes: 32 thirty-second notes (three flags) and 64 sixty-fourth notes (four flags) each last the same length as a single whole note. 2 THE KEYBOARD In Western music, pitches and notes are specific and have specific names. Remember earlier how we talked about the long stick of the crotchet? When a drummer (perhaps you’ve done it yourself) shouts at the start of a song ‘1, 2, 3, 4!’, they are paying homage to the humble crotchet. To know how to read music notes, you’ll need to learn the different types of notes and their timing. Or what if I reversed the snare and bass drums to create something very different from what we’re used to hearing? The animals came in two by two but the musicians come in 4x4s (well, the successful ones do anyway). Can you imagine how they would sound over your counting? This comprehensive article on how to read music will be particularly focused on guitarists wanting to learn to read music and will cover the basics of reading music. Have a re-read of the time signature section and let us know if you have any questions. Recall that in 4/4 time, there are 4 beats in a measure, and a quarter note is equal to one beat. Depending on the time signature of the piece of music, the number of beats per note varies. The quavers are ticking along at the top (1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and), The crotchets are marking the beats below (1 2 3 4). This allows you to create a really strong mental link between the notes you see on the paper, and the music you make on the drums. To avoid this potential catastrophe, we need to learn the drum key. If you’re into heavy metal, and you’re playing thunderous double bass with both feet, the note values are likely to be a lot smaller, with lots of them squeezed together.