Drum tablature, commonly known as a drum tab, is a form of simplified percussion notation, or tablature for percussion instruments. Instead of the durational notes normally seen on a piece of sheet music, drum tab uses proportional horizontal placement to indicate rhythm and vertical placement on a series of lines to represent which drum from the drum kit to stroke. Drum tabs frequently depict drum patterns.
Key or legend
The number of lines in a specific tab will vary depending on the number of different drums used during a specific section of music. Below is an example of a basic drum kit.
CC|-Crash cymbal----|
HH|-Hi-hat----------|
Rd|-Ride cymbal-----|
SN|-Snare drum------|
T1|-High tom--------|
T2|-Low tom---------|
FT|-Floor tom-------|
BD|-Bass drum-------|
Hf/FH|-Hi-hat w/foot|
Techniques
Tablature can use various letter and symbols to denote different cymbal types or other drum techniques. These are the tablature symbols that represent various techniques, though these may vary:
Cymbals
|-x-| Strike cymbal or hi-hat
|-X-| Strike loose hi-hat, or hit crash hard
|-o-| Open hi-hat
|-#-| Choke cymbal (grab cymbal with hand after striking it)
|-s-| Splash cymbal
|-c-| China cymbal
|-b-| Bell of ride
|-x-| Click hi-hat with foot
Drums
|-o-| Strike
|-O-| Accent
|-g-| Ghost note
|-f-| Flam
|-d-| Drag
|-b-| Soft one-handed roll
|-B-| Accented one-handed roll
|-@-| Snare rim
Example
The common time rhythm pattern below is first presented in standard notation; following is the corresponding pattern translated into drum tab.
thumb|none|300px
B = Bass drum HH = Hi-hat S = Snare drum
HH|x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-||
S|----o-------o---||
B|o-------o-------||
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +