Drum Notation Chart — Printable Reference
Where the kick, snare, hi-hat, toms and cymbals sit on the percussion staff, what every note head and marking means, and a counted one-bar groove in 4/4, 3/4, 2/4 and 6/8. Switch to the blank practice grid to write your own beats on ruled bars with the beats marked. Hit Print or Download PDF for either sheet on one US Letter page — no signup. Positions follow the Percussive Arts Society standard used by most method books; for staves without a drum key, use blank staff paper.
Prints on one US Letter page. Set margins to "None" for the sharpest result.
Drum Notation Chart
Standard drum set key · 5-line percussion staff, neutral clef · stems up = hands, stems down = feet
Where each drum and cymbal is written
Publishers differ below the snare — extra toms fill the remaining lines and spaces. Always read the key printed with the music in front of you.
Markings that change how you play the note
Time signatures — one bar of each, counted
Top number = how many beats in a bar. Bottom number = which note value gets the beat (4 = quarter note, 8 = eighth note).
printablepolly.com/drum-notation-chart
How to Read Drum Sheet Music
1. The staff is a picture of the kit, not a set of pitches
A drum part uses the same five lines as any other instrument, but the clef at the front is two thick bars — the neutral or percussion clef — which announces that the lines mean instruments rather than notes. Read it from the floor up: bass drum at the bottom, snare in the middle, toms descending from the top space down, cymbals above. Nothing here is a pitch, which is why a drum part needs no key signature.
2. The shape of the note head tells you what you are hitting
A plain oval is a drum head — snare, toms, kick. An ✕ is metal: hi-hat, ride, crash. A diamond is the bell of the ride. The one thing that catches people out is the cross stick, an ✕ sitting in the snare’s third space: the position says snare, the ✕ says it is not a normal stroke.
3. Stems up are hands, stems down are feet
Drum notation splits the kit into two voices so that a kick and a hi-hat landing on the same beat do not fight over one stem. Everything played with a stick beams upward, everything played with a pedal beams downward. Once you see that, a bar of four-way independence stops looking like a wall of ink and starts reading as two simple lines stacked on top of each other.
4. Count the subdivision out loud before you play it
Say “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &” at a speed you can hold, then add one limb at a time. The note values decide where each hit falls — eighth notes on every syllable, quarter notes on the numbers only — and the note values chart lays out how each duration is written and counted. How fast you count is a separate question, answered by the tempo marking at the top of the piece.
5. Write a groove out before you claim you know it
Take the blank grid on this page, pick a beat you can already play, and notate it one voice at a time — hi-hat across the bar, snare on the backbeats, kick last. Nearly everyone discovers their kick pattern is not where they thought it was. The vocabulary behind all of it — beats, bars, time signatures, dynamics — is on the music theory basics chart.
Printable PDF
The chart above is the whole thing — the full drum key, every articulation marking and four counted time signatures on one US Letter page. Print the reference chart for the wall behind the kit and a stack of the blank grid for writing beats down. No signup, no watermark.
Make this chart last
A chart taped up in a practice room takes a beating, so print it on 65 lb cardstock and laminate it — laminated, the blank grid also becomes reusable with a dry-erase pen, which is worth doing if a student is writing a new groove every lesson. Our guide to the best printing supplies for charts and worksheets compares the cardstock, ink, laminating pouches and sheet protectors worth buying.
More Printable Music Charts
Staff Paper
Blank staves to write grooves and fills on
🎶Note Values Chart
How long each note and rest lasts
🎵Music Theory Basics
Beats, bars, intervals & dynamics
⏱️Tempo Markings Chart
Tempo terms & BPM ranges to count against
🎼Bass Clef Notes
Lines, spaces & ledger notes named
🎹Piano Scales
Major, minor, pentatonic & blues
🎸Guitar Chords
Open chords & barre shapes
🎻Instrument Range Chart
Written & sounding ranges by instrument
FAQ
How do you read drum notation?
Read the 5-line staff as a map of the kit instead of a set of pitches: the higher a note sits, the higher up the kit it is. Cymbals go at the top with ✕ note heads, the snare sits in the third space, toms fill the lines and spaces between, and the bass drum sits in the first space at the bottom. Stems pointing up are things you hit with your hands, stems pointing down are your feet. Then count the bar out loud — 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & — and play whatever is written above each number.
What are the drum notation symbols for kick, snare and hi-hat?
The bass drum (kick) is a plain note head in the bottom space of the staff with its stem pointing down. The snare is a plain note head in the third space, stem up. The hi-hat is an ✕ note head in the space above the top line — an o above it means open, a + means squeezed shut. The hi-hat played with the foot is an ✕ below the staff, stem down.
What does an X note head mean in drum music?
An ✕ marks metal rather than a drum head: hi-hat, ride, crash, cowbell. The one common exception is the cross stick (rim click), which is written as an ✕ in the snare's third space because it is a different sound made on the snare. A diamond note head on the top line means the bell of the ride.
What time signature is drum music usually written in?
Most rock, pop and funk is in 4/4 — four quarter-note beats a bar, counted 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. Waltzes and some folk are in 3/4, marches in 2/4, and ballads, blues shuffles and a lot of Irish music are in 6/8, where the eighth note gets the beat and the notes beam in groups of three. The top number tells you how many beats are in a bar; the bottom number tells you which note value counts as one beat.
What is a ghost note on a drum chart?
A very quiet snare stroke, written with the note head in parentheses. Ghost notes fill the space between backbeats and are what make a groove feel like it is breathing rather than clicking. They are played at a fraction of the volume of an accented note — the stick barely leaves the head.
Do all drum charts use the same symbols?
The positions on this chart follow the Percussive Arts Society's standard drumset notation, which is what most method books and published charts use. Publishers still differ from one another below the snare — how many toms they show and where the second floor tom sits — and some hand-written charts invent their own shorthand. Any well-made chart prints its own key at the top of the first page; read it before you play.
How do I write my own drum beat down?
Use the blank practice grid on this page. Pick a time signature, then work one voice at a time: write the hi-hat pattern across the bar first, add the snare on the backbeats, and put the kick in last. The dotted lines mark the beats so everything you write on beat 3 lines up vertically. Writing a groove out is the fastest way to find out whether you actually know it.
Is this drum notation chart free to print?
Yes — choose the reference chart or the blank practice grid, then click Print or Download PDF and it lands on one US Letter page. No signup, no watermark, and no limit on copies for a classroom or a drum studio.