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Learn To Read Drum Tabs

I got the following information from this website.

It should help you understand how to read the drum tabs on my site. Good luck!!

I have tried make the songs as comprehensive as possible,
but at the same time easy to read. A very good idea is to
listen to the song or the ra. files while following the tab,
that way you will get a much better understanding of my method
of tabbing. I recommend that you print this out and refer to
it as your reading the tabs.

  

 

Every "-" represents a quarter of a beat (eg. 1 e + a 2 e + a. - more elaborately...

1-ee-and-uh-2-ee-and-uh-)

 

{3} - means the three beats directly below it is a triplet. (eg. 1TL2TL3TL4TL -

more elaborately... 1 Trip-let 2 Trip-let 3 Trip-let 4 Trip-let)

 

 

______X times______

when there is... / \ "X" represents the number of times those

bars are played, it does NOT mean play that bar once and then repeat it X

number of times.

 

 

 

p. - piano (soft)

f. - forte (loud)

mp. - mezzo piano (moderately soft)

mf. - mezzo forte (moderately loud)

c. - crescendo (getting louder - keeps getting louder from where the "c." is written to the end

of the "<" signs).

dc - decrescendo (getting softer - keeps getting softer from where the "dc." is written to the

end of the ">" signs).

 

 

Cym = Cymbals

^ - ride cymbal

~ - bell of ride cymbal (the bell of a cymbal is the raised part in the center of it).

x - hit fully closed hi hat

@ - hit loose hihat (used in loud, heavy parts)

= - close hi hat with foot (also used when hihat is to be choked).

o - hit open hi hat softly

+ - hit bell of open hi hat.

X - crash cymbal (Dave Grohl often uses the ride cymbal as a crash and also uses two at once

so I won't go into the specifics of what ones he used where, it's up to you.)

# - splash cymbal

 

other cymbal stuff..

Choke - choke the cymbal

shoulder - this means shoulder the cymbal, this usually
only occurs for the hi-hat. Should-

ering means to play every second hit with more forte.
If you don't understand this,

take a look at the Milk It tab and listen to the song;
the shouldering happens in

the first bars of the song for example. Another one is
to listen to In Bloom, he

does it in the verses, and if you have a copy of the
video clip for it you will

notice how he does it.

 

S = Snare

* - soft snare hit (also not as ghost note).

o - normal snare hit

O - accented snare

/ - stick across rim

X - rim shot

f - flam

F - accented flam

 

 

B = Bass Drum

0 - normal bass drum hit

 

 

 

(Dave Grohl uses only two toms, a mounted tom and a small
tom, so in the songs that he plays I

have used these...)

 

MT = Mounted tom

o - normal mounted tom hit

O - accented mounted tom

f - flam on mounted tom

F - accented flam on mounted tom

 

FT = Floor tom

o - normal floor tom hit

O - accented floor tom

f - flam on floor tom

F - accented flam on floor tom

 

 

 

(Chad Channing used three toms, in the songs that he plays I have used these....)

 

MT1 = Mounted Tom 1 (the smallest one)

o - normal small tom hit.

O - accented small tom

f - flam on small tom

F - accented flam on small tom

 

MT2 = Mounted Tom 2

o - normal medium tom hit.

O - accented medium tom

f - flam on medium tom

F - accented flam on medium tom

 

FT = Floor tom

o - normal floor tom hit

O - accented floor tom

f - flam on floor tom

F - accented flam on floor tom

 

 

NOTE: if you have trouble differentiating between "0" and "O",
because of your browser then let me know, thanx.

 

 

An simple example with some guidelines.....

 

 

__{one bar}__

/ \

| | |

Cym X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-|

FT --------------------------------|

S ----o-------o-------o-------o---|

MT --------------------------------|

B 0-------0-0---0-0---------0-----|

1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a1 (it can be counted like this).

 

 

 

NOTE: the mounted tom (MT) and floor tom (FT) lines normally
wouldn't be in there seeing that there is nothing played on them.

 

 

 

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