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How to Make Your Own Drum Sheet Music Tabs

Drum tabs (or tablature) is a method of noting what a drummer plays in any given song. They notate the timing of the piece, as well as the percussion played, and how it should be played (how hard the drum should be hit, for example). Drum tabs can be thought of as basic sheet music for drums, they can be written by hand or by using any word-processing software that uses the ASCII code: Microsoft Notepad or Apple's TextEdit, for example.

Things You'll Need

  • Word-processing software
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Instructions

    • 1

      Familiarize yourself with the tablature abbreviations for the basic drums and cymbals:

      B = Bass drum
      SN = Snare drum
      T1 = High tom-tom
      T2 = Low tom-tom
      FT = Floor tom-tom

      HH = Hi-hat cymbal
      Hf = Hi-hat pedal
      CC = Crash cymbal
      Rd = Ride cymbal

    • 2

      Familiarize yourself with the tablature shorthand for the different ways to play the drums and cymbals:

      Drums
      o : Hit.
      O: Harder hit.
      g : Quieter hit.
      f : Flam hit.
      @ : Hit the snare rim.
      d : Double stroke.

      Cymbals
      x : Hit.
      X : Harder hit (also used for a loose hi-hat hit).
      o : Open hi-hat hit.
      # : Choke cymbal.
      b : Hit the bell of the ride cymbal.

    • 3

      Type (or draw) a blank drum tab stave, as follows:

      CC |-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
      HH | ----------------------------|-----------------------------|
      SN |-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
      B_ |-----------------------------|-----------------------------|
      _ _ |1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a|1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a|

      The letters and numbers below the tab are used to indicate timing, with the numbers being the on-beats.

      Note: this drum tab is for a simple beat, using only the snare drum, bass drum, hi-hat and crash cymbal. To create a drum tab for a more complex beat, simply add more drum abbreviation(s) and a corresponding line(s).

    • 4

      Enter the drums that are played, in the time that they are played. The opening bars to the verse of The Clash's "Should I Stay or Should I Go" would be as follows:

      CC |-X--------------------------|------------------------------|
      HH |-----x--x--x--x--x--x---|-x--x--x--x--x--x--x--x-|
      SN |---------o-------------o---|-------o--------------o-----|
      B_ |-o----------o--o--------o-|-o--------o--o----------o--|
      _ _|-1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a|-1e+a2e+a3e+a4e+a|

      This indicates that the verse opens with an accented crash cymbal hit along with a bass drum hit, which then moves in to a drum beat consisting of the hi-hat, snare drum and bass drum.

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