drum kit

The basic items of the drum kit are

• bass drum, struck by the bass pedal on the floor. Written stems down on the first space of the bass clef.
• snare drum, struck by sticks or brushes. Written stems down beamed to the bass drum on the 3rd space of the bass clef.
• tom toms, struck by sticks or mallets. There are 2 to 3 tom toms on a standard kit. The tenor or tenor and alto tom toms are mounted above the bass drum. We write alto tom on the 4th space, tenor tom on the 4th line, and the deepest side tom (or floor tom) on the second space. Note, there is no universal standard for the placement of tom toms on the stave. Always give the drummer a legend, as with the stave above, so they know which tom tom to play. Toms are written stems down beamed to the snare and bass drum.
• hi hat cymbal, struck by sticks. Hi hat may be struck open (written 0) or closed (written +). It is written stems-up on the top line of the bass clef with note-head x.
• ride cymbal, struck by sticks or mallets. Written stems-up on the first space above the bass clef. Both crash and ride are written on this space, so write ride above the ride note. The note-head is x.
• crash cymbal, struck by sticks or mallets. Written stems up on the first space above the bass clef. As the ride cymbal is also written on this space, write crash above the note when you want crash. The note-head is x.