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Percussion Lesson: Beginner Drum Lesson: The Staff

This document provides an overview of basic drum notation and rhythm for beginner drum lessons. It explains the staff, where different drums are notated, note durations like quarter notes, half notes and whole notes. It also covers time signatures like 4/4 and grouping music into measures separated by bar lines. The second part provides examples for students to practice basic rhythms on the snare drum, ride cymbal and bass drum. It concludes by having students combine these elements into their first basic rock beat groove.

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King Bangngay
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809 views

Percussion Lesson: Beginner Drum Lesson: The Staff

This document provides an overview of basic drum notation and rhythm for beginner drum lessons. It explains the staff, where different drums are notated, note durations like quarter notes, half notes and whole notes. It also covers time signatures like 4/4 and grouping music into measures separated by bar lines. The second part provides examples for students to practice basic rhythms on the snare drum, ride cymbal and bass drum. It concludes by having students combine these elements into their first basic rock beat groove.

Uploaded by

King Bangngay
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Percussion Lesson: Beginner Drum Lesson

Part 1

If you're wanting your first lesson in how to play drums, you've


come to the right place! 

By the end of this 2-part lesson, you'll be playing your first simple
rock beat, so let's get straight into it, beginning with a few
technicalities. 

The Staff

Drum music, like most other music is written on 5 lines known as


the staff, or stave. Each instrument in the kit has its own place on
the staff. At the beginning of the staff is a sign called a clef which
looks like this : 

This tells us the notes on the staff are notes for percussion, as
opposed to any other instrument. 

The Drums

The snare and the bass drums sit in the spaces in between the
lines. 

 
While the three toms each sit on a separate line: 

The Cymbals

Finally, the cymbals are shown with crosses as follows (N.B. there
are several different ways of notating cymbals - you may find them
written differently elsewhere). 

Rhythm

The next thing we need to understand before we get down to some


playing is how to read the rhythm. 

The length of a note is measured by counting. 

A quarter-note (or crotchet in the UK) lasts for 1 count and looks
like this:

so five quarter-notes on the snare drum in a row will look like this :
A half-note (or minim in the UK) lasts for 2 counts and looks like
this:

so four half-notes on the snare drum will look like this : 

Click on the play button to hear the half-notes played on snare,


together with a background tick for the counts (there are 4 counts
introduction before the snare starts). 

Finally, a whole note (or semibreve) lasts for 4 counts and looks like
this:

so four whole notes on the snare drum in a row will look like this : 
(Again, there are 4 counts introduction before the snare starts). 

Bars

Music is grouped into groups of counts known as bars. The first


type of bar we will see is 4/4, written : 

which means there are 4 quarter-note counts in each bar. Below is


an example of two bars written in 4/4 time. The first bar contains 4
quarter-notes, each lasting for one count. The second bar contains a
whole note which lasts for 4 counts, and so, occupies the entire
bar. 

The groups of 4 counts are separated by vertical lines known


as bar-lines. A double bar-line signifies the end of a piece. 

Percussion Lesson: Beginner Drum


Lesson Part 2

Now we've learnt the basics of music notation and rhythm, we're
ready to start our first piece. Try to play the following example on
the snare drum. Don't forget to count the different note-values, as
shown. The letters over the notes tell you which hand to use:

 L - left hand
 R - right hand

Adding the Ride Cymbal We're now going to play the


ride cymbal and the snare drum together. The ride
cymbal is played with the tip of the drum-stick,
about 6-8cm in from the edge, as shown: Using your
right hand to play the ride, and your left to play the
snare, now try the following rhythm: (with a four
beat intro)
Adding the Bass Drum There are two main ways to play the bass
drum - which one you choose is totally a matter of preference.

 The first option is to keep the foot flat


on the pedal at all times, moving only
the ankle to press down the pedal.

 The second option is to rest only the


ball of the foot on the pedal and
'stamp' the pedal down using the
whole leg.

Try playing this piece using just the bass drum and the ride cymbal.
Don't be put off by this symbol - 
It's simply a minim note, played on the cymbal. 

Time to Groove We're now ready to put the elements we've learnt


so far together into our first real drum groove. We've covered quite
a lot in this lesson, so now might be a good time to review what
you've learnt so far. The standard rock beat we'll now learn could be
considered the basis of all rock drumming. Master this and you're
well on your way. Practise it very slowly at first. Once you get good,
you can speed it up a little. GOOD LUCK! 

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