When musicians are expected to play a tough piece of music by looking at the notes on a page, they often refer to it as “reading fly crap.” The notes appear to completely cover the sheet as if it was once the floor in a cage filled with flies. In the next 3 posts we will cut through the fly crap and show you how to read the droppings on a musical sheet of paper.
Most bands that you play in may not use written music but you will be more successful if you know how to read music. You will use this skill to help remember drum beats. It will also come in handy if you play in a school or community band. If you play in a recording studio, you most likely will be asked to read music.
“5 Key Parts of Drum Music Notation – Boring!” described the basic music staff which is the foundation for reading music. Now it’s time to learn about note values.
Music on a page is made up of a combination of notes and rests. Notes are what you play, rests are when you don’t play.
Each note on a page (or “sheet”) of drum music has a value. The note value is the length of time that passes before playing the next note. The note value (or “duration”) is defined by a combination of the note head, stem and flag.
If you are playing an instrument like the piano or saxophone, you would keep playing the same note for length of its duration. A drummer, however, hits a drum or cymbal once until the next note is played.
In drum music, there are three basic note heads:
Hollow and filled note heads are used to indicate drums; X note heads represent cymbals.
A note head may or may not have a stem. Stems can point up or down to make the music easier to read. There is no difference in note value if a stem is pointing up or down.
The flags can either fly freely or be connected together for easier readability. The following groups of notes are all played the same way:
As mentioned above, note values are defined by a combination of the note head, the stem and the flag. Here are the most common notes and rests:
Most rock music is written with a time signature of 4/4. This means there are 4 beats in a measure and a quarter note is one beat.
The following series of two measure phrases show note and rest values with the count for each measure. See “What Are Drum Fills and How Are They Played?” to review how measures are counted.
Try tapping your legs with your hands as you count each measure. Alternate between your right and left hands. Tap your right hand on your right leg for the 1st note you play. Tap your left hand on your left leg for the 2nd note you play and so on.
Here’s a whole note, a whole rest and the count in 4/4 time:
Sometimes a whole note is centered in the measure. However, it is still played on the count of “1.”
For a great example of whole notes, listen to the beginning of the 
song “Hush” by Deep Purple from the album “The Very Best of Deep Purple” with the great drummer Ian Paice. Right after the wolf howls (yep, it’s a howling wolf), the band comes in and plays whole notes to start the song.
The 1968 version is better than the 1988 remake. See if you can count the whole notes. The tempo is about 109 beats per minute. The whole notes are repeated at the end of the song.
Here’s two half notes, two half rests and the count. Remember to play the 1st half note with your right hand and the 2nd half note with your left hand:
The two half rests in the second measure could be replaced with one whole rest.
In 4/4 time, you can play 4 quarter notes in a measure. Here are 4 quarter notes and 4 quarter rests.
Here are eighth notes and eighth rests:
Here are sixteenth notes and sixteenth rests:
As with the half rests, 4 quarter rests, 8 eighth rests and 16 sixteenth rests could all be replaced with one whole rest.
This is step one of learning how to read drum music. Do you see why some musicians call it “reading fly crap”?