What are sixteenth and eighth notes and stuff?
Hey, Lucas! Welcome to the forum!
Here's a quick review of the notes (you might also want to check some of the lessons available at drumbum.com)...better still would be to review it with a drum teacher near you or someone who knows drumming, since it's hard to explain in words alone.
First, time signatures (such as 2/4, 3/4, 4/4): In short, the top number is the number of beats found in each measure, and the lower number is the note which is counted as one beat. For example, in 4/4 time, there are four notes, with each note getting one beat. In this case, it's a quarter note.
Now, the notes:
In 4/4 time, a whole note gets all four counts. (In drumming, since you can't hold notes like you can on say, a piano, there's one note, as, "boom" (two-three-four), "boom" (two-three-four). Not the best example, but...
Half notes, in this example, get two counts...it would sound like "boom"-two-"boom"-four...
Quarter notes get one count, and it would count one-two-three-four, boom-boom, boom, boom.
Eighth notes get 1/2-count each, and would count "one & two & three &"; sixteenth notes are 1/4 count each, and count as "one-ee-and-uh-two-ee-and-uh-three-ee-and-uh-four-ee-and-uh." I will not try to count 32nd notes, but obviously they would be twice as fast as sixteenth notes.
Most drum books I've studied have a beginner's or review section that has this information printed much the way I have it, plus the graphics for each note. Hope this is a good start, but again, one-on-one instruction--and definitely practice--will make the notes easier to read.
Good luck, mate!
keep the beat goin' ... Don't keep it to yourself!
Charlie
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." --Henry David Thoreau, "Walden," 1854
"There's a lot to be said for Time Honored tradition and value." --In memory of Frank "fiacovaz" Iacovazzi
"Maybe your drums can be beat, but you can't."--Jack Keck
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