Drum tablature

Drum tablature, commonly known as a drum tab, is a form of simplified percussion notation, or tablature for percussion instruments. Instead of the durational notes normally seen on a piece of sheet music, drum tab uses proportional horizontal placement to indicate rhythm and vertical placement on a series of lines to represent which drum from the drum kit to stroke. Drum tabs frequently depict drum patterns.

Key or legend[edit]

The number of lines in a specific tab will vary depending on the number of different drums used during a specific section of music. Below is an example of a basic drum kit.

  CC|-Crash cymbal----|[1]   HH|-Hi-hat----------|   Rd|-Ride cymbal-----|   SN|-Snare drum------|   T1|-High tom--------|   T2|-Low tom---------|   FT|-Floor tom-------|   BD|-Bass drum-------|   Hf/FH|-Hi-hat w/foot| 

Techniques[edit]

Tablature can use various letter and symbols to denote different cymbal types or other drum techniques. These are the tablature symbols that represent various techniques, though these may vary:

Cymbals[edit]

  |-x-| Strike cymbal or hi-hat   |-X-| Strike loose hi-hat, or hit crash hard   |-o-| Open hi-hat   |-#-| Choke cymbal (grab cymbal with hand after striking it)   |-s-| Splash cymbal   |-c-| China cymbal   |-b-| Bell of ride   |-x-| Click hi-hat with foot 

Drums[edit]

  |-o-| Strike   |-O-| Accent   |-g-| Ghost note   |-f-| Flam   |-d-| Drag   |-b-| Soft one-handed roll   |-B-| Accented one-handed roll   |-@-| Snare rim 

Example[edit]

Below is an example of a rhythm pattern characteristic of much popular music including rock presented in standard notation and then its corresponding translation into drum tab.

B = Bass drum HH = Hi-hat S = Snare drum

  HH|x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-||    S|----o-------o---||    B|o-------o-------||      1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 

References[edit]