How to Read Drum Tabs

Learn Your Favorite Drum Music Quicker And With Less Effort!

Learning songs can sometimes be very difficult. It can be especially difficult when the song is already hard, and you aren't quite sure which rhythms and drums to play.

That is why learning how to sight read tabs can help you out immensely when trying to learn a new song.

A Drum Tab is simply a Musical Score that contains information telling YOU, the musician, what to play.

For those of you who still don't know what I am talking about, here is an example of a Drum Tab.

An Example Of A Drum Tab

Drum tabs help to make learning a piece of music easier.

As well, you always have the music to look at, so you won't "forget" what you were playing. And for those of us who can't memorize every single song we want to play, this is very useful.

Drum tabs use the same Rhythms that Piano, Guitar, Saxophone, and pretty much every other instrument on the face of the planet uses.

I have covered how to read rhythms, and count out note durations ect. here

Drum Tabs are written out on something called a Staff.

A Staff consists of 5 Horizontal lines, and 4 Spaces. It is similar to a "Grand Staff" in piano, but does not include the bottom 5 lines that piano music would include.

A Staff with the Lines And Spaces Marked

Notes are placed on the lines, or in the spaces. Each line and space represents a different drum, so it is important to know what they represent in order to read drums tabs.

To see these representations, take a look at my Drum Staff Notation In PDF Format, or you can look at the picture below (The PDF is much better quality, so if you are having trouble reading the image below, click on This Link)

The Drum Staff

I have an ever growing list of drum tabs On This Page.

That concludes this lesson, so hopefully you now understand how drum tabs work!

If you had any trouble with this lesson, or just have some general questions about Drum Tabs, then submit it in the form below!

If you haven't done so already:

(That's A Clue!)

-Andrew Muller, Editor (Friday, November 6th, 2009.)

Do You Have Any Questions/Comments About Drum Tabs?

Use this form to ask an expert (me) about drum tabs, and I will answer them really quick, I promise.

Also, if you just have any comments about Drum tabs in general, use this form to tell the world about them!

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