Download the exercise here: Understanding Notes (PDF)
Drummers that can read open up many doors into the music industry. That’s what my fortune cookie says anyway.
Todays level is super high and although it is possible to get by without reading, there will be a time where you will be confronted with a reading gig..
Reading looks like rocket science but it’s quite simple. Like anything in life, practice makes perfect.
So, what are notes? what are rests? Think about reading music as a language. All the notes and rests are indicators of what drum or cymbal to play at what time. Music is all about the right note at the right time. As a drummer, our main focus is time.
Before we go too crazy, lets start from the beginning.
A whole note is the top of the chain. When you think of the whole note, think 4 counts.
Imagine your hands are an instrument, imagine you are able to “hold” a note in your hands when you clap..
Now clap once whilst counting to 4. Don’t clap then count to 4, instead clap on your first count and continue counting to 4.
Do this repeatedly like so:
clap 2 3 4 | clap 2 3 4 | clap 2 3 4 etc
Congratulations! You have just performed a whole note jam session..
:)
Make sure when you clap the exercise above that you don’t count in your head.. Count out aloud! Generally, if you can count it, you can play it.
Secondly, hold the clap for the entire 4 counts then let go, pretend you are squeezing the note in your hands.
Why?
This is to understand that a whole note actually lasts for “the space” of 4 counts. If I played a whole note on a piano, I would hold down the key on the keyboard for the total of 4 counts. As drummers, our notes are all short. We need to pretend to hold the note as if we were playing a piano…
Does this make sense so far?
For every note – there is an equivalent rest.
A rest is NOT played
A whole note rest is exactly the same as a whole note – it lasts for 4 counts, it fills the same amount of time and space except you dont play anything. A rest is completely silent. So, a practical example in the clapping exercise above – a whole note rest would be represented by holding your hands completely apart.
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Now that we have covered the whole note, its time to understand how a whole note divides up.
I’ll use fruit as an example. If you cut a whole apple into two pieces, you get two halves… Same thing in music. A half note lasts for 2 counts.
Back to the clapping exercise, if you have two half notes in a bar, you will clap on count 1 and count 3. Again, squeeze the note, hold it for 2 counts..
ie Clap 2 Clap 4 | Clap 2 Clap 4 | etc
Quarter notes are the next division down.
If you cut the apple into 4 even pieces, you get 4 quarters of an apple. Same in music.
A quarter note lasts for one count each.. So in this example clap every time you count.
ie 1 2 3 4 or clap clap clap clap etc
You should be seeing the bigger picture now.
- Whole notes last for 4 counts
- Half notes last for 2 counts
- Quarter notes last for 1 count
- For every note there is a rest
I’ll cover eighth, sixteenth and thirty seconds in “understanding notes – part II”.. If you have any questions, please post them below..
Keep practicing!
Posted in Drum Lesson Basics
Tags: Free Online Drum Lesson, half notes, quarter notes, whole notes
