The Music Staff
Drum Music Staff and Note Values
Lesson Introduction
In this lesson we’ll be looking at the drum music staff where we will place our lessons within. This staff is in the 4/4 time signature, meaning there are four beats to the bar. This is the most common time signature and is found commonly throughout most modern forms of music.
It’s common to find in music books a reference to the music staff relative to where the notes will be placed based on the purpose of the lesson. The great thing with drums is that it’s interchangeable meaning you could change where the notes are indicated as long as you advise at the beginning of the music to be played.
The Music Staff
The standard Drum Music staff will consist of 5 lines with 4 spaces. 4/4 Indicates there are 4 quarter notes to the bar.
The Bass Drum
The Bass drum is located in the bottom gap on the music staff. It’s also often referred to as the Kick or Kick drum.
The Snare Drum
The Snare drum is located in the second gap simply referred to as the ‘snare‘.
The Hi Hat
The Hi Hat appears on the top line as a cross and are referred to as ‘Hats‘.
Note Values
Each bar consists of notes with note values, note values we are using here are Quarters, Eights and Sixteenths.Think of note values as a fraction or part of the bar as in a mathematical equation.
Quarter Notes: There are 4 Quarter notes per bar
Eighth Notes: There are 8 Eighth notes per bar
Sixteenth Notes: There are 16 Sixteenth notes per bar
Combinations: As long as the notes add up correctly, you can have any combination of these notes to make up 1 bar.
Now let’s take a look at them on the music staff.
Quarter Notes
Quarter notes have stems without flags, standing individually when there’s more than one as there’s no flag.
Quarter Note
A Quarter note
Quarter Notes on the Full Bar
Notice how many there are, 4.
Tip:
When you see the 4/4 symbol at the beginning of the bar this indicates there are 4 beats to the bar, this is called a time signature.
Eighth Notes
Eighth notes have stems with flags, standing individually when there’s more than one as there’s a join between notes.
Eighth Note
An Eighth note
Eighth Notes on the Full Bar
Notice how many there are, 8.
Sixteenth Notes
Sixteenth notes have stems with 2 flags, standing individually when there’s more than one as there’s a join between notes.
Sixteenth Note
A Sixteenth note
Sixteenth Notes on the Full Bar
Notice how many there are, 16.
Think of note values as fractions of the whole number, then look at a full bar being the whole number.
Refer to it as a mathematical equation:
- 4/4 = 1 – Four Quarter notes equals 1 bar
- 8/8 = 1 – Eight Eighth notes equals 1 bar
- 16/16 = 1 – Sixteen Sixteenth notes equals 1 bar
Rests
Rest notes or ‘Rests’ are required where nothing is played in order to complete the mathematical equation of the bar. They look like this.
Quarter Rest
Eighth Rest
Sixteenth Rest
