First we need to know what each note on the music staff means, in other words, which drum or cymbal to hit. Take a look at the diagram below to see what drum or cymbal each note on the music staff represents.

Since there are so many different types of drums, cymbals and percussion instruments that we are going to be playing we felt it would be easier for you to identify the different instruments by color coding some of them. For example, all the tom-tom notes are colored red for easy identification and all snare and bass drum notes are colored blue.

Where it gets a little tricky is with all the different cymbals that are in the diagram, you'll need to make sure you pay attention whether to play cymbal #1 or cymbal #2 in the transcriptions and patterns used in our lessons. There are a couple of lessons and transcriptions that use cowbells and tambourines, so you'll need to make sure you know where these instruments are on the staff.

NOTE: the drum legend that we have choosen to use it not completely standard with other drum transcriptions you'll found out there on the internet or in your local music book store... but we've tried to stay as close as possible to standard notation.