A blog to help with learning and teaching Drums. Written by Theo Lawrence / TL Music Books.
For this 2 page snare drum piece there are 3 parts, A B and C. You can split up players into these groups of abilities (C is hardest). Some players could also play all three parts or just 2 parts.
PDF Download: Piece 3 – Snare Drum Sheet Music – Book 2
Here is what Page 2, part C looks like:
Some snare drum sheet music writes out buzz rolls with a Z through the stem. I don’t write it like that because my software doesn’t have that feature, but many others write it my way too anyway so I’ve got used to writing using 3 slashes instead (3 slashes like this /// through a stem line like this |).
So, the slashes through the notes are also used in other pitched instruments as a tremolo marking. Violins have plenty of tremolo, which is achieved by moving the bow back and forth quickly. You’ll hear the sound in movies where the violins sound intense and brooding by playing 1 note for ages repeatedly. See the video below for an example of this. You’ll hear this more in old programs and films such as in the original Thunderbirds series’.
These tremolo markings in drums can be played with precise double strokes, or with a multiple bounch technique, which sometimes yeilds more than a double with each hand, but thats ok. This article talks further about the ambiguity of multiple bouncing vs precise doubles when reading.
On each line that the 1st bar has what you see in sheet music and the 2nd bar of each line shows you the method of playing it. I have chosen to write slashed 16th notes rather than write 32nd notes in the second bars because that’s how I teach drummers to count their buzz rolls, by playing 16th notes and buzzing each hand. So, for a 1 beat buzz roll, you would play “R L R L” 16th notes, and each hand will be buzzed, so it will actually be something like this: RR LL RR LL, or RRR LLL RRR LLL if you play several notes with each hand. For snare drum sheet music with multiple bouncing, I encourage more bounces so it has more of a drum roll feel to it.
Here’s how to play the multiple bounce roll:
When you see 16th notes with slashes in, during regular drum sheet music especially, I would say this always should be assumed as ‘use precice doubles’ if you can manage it with the double stroke technique. For example, the hi hats may have 16th notes but some of the hits are doubled, and these would be played with a strong double stroke technique. In this Samba Funk Grooves sheet you can see that the hi hats have been written as 32nd notes, but they could also have been notated with slashed 16th notes. You can see double strokes played on the hi hat in a groove in this video:
When you see slashed 16ths on the snare drum, this means to play them as 32nd notes, with double strokes (RRLLRRLL for 4 slashed 16th notes).
This video by Ryan Alexander Bloom shows how I play all of my precise doubles. I didn’t realise it was called the ‘Push Pull’ method until I looked up videos on it! At drum college they were just taught as the ‘double stroke technique’. Please make sure to watch the full video if you want to learn double strokes properly, it’s only a couple of mins…
After letting Ryan know that his video was featured here, we arranged for him to write a guest blog post for this website, which you can read here: 3 Simple Drum and Bass Steps – How to Play, With Notation and Variations
Related:
→ Snare Drum Piece – Jan 2018
→ Group Snare Drum Piece with 3 difficulty levels (Piece 2, Book 1)
→ Group snare drum piece with 3 difficulty levels (Piece 5, Book 1)
→ (Premium) – 10 Snare Drum Pieces – Book 1 – Levels 1-3 (PDF ebooks)
→ 10 Pages Of Accent Exercises With 16th Notes – PDF Ebook (includes double strokes exercises)
→ Accent Techniques – Down, Tap, Up, Full Strokes
Here is some drum sheet music of a snare drum piece, which can be played by a solo snare or a snare line group.
The snare piece starts off in 3/4 timing and then moves into 4/4. There are various dynamic changes. There are also plenty of techniques involved. In bar 2 there is a flam. Bar 3 sees the first buzz roll. Bar 4 has a rim hit on the last note. Bar 8 has a drag at the end. Bar 9 and 10 are repeated 4 times and feature accents. Bar 11 starts the quietest section in pp, which means very quiet (pianissimo). Bar 12 sees the first rest, and the final techniques are found in the final bar, which are ghost notes.
Related: Group Snare Drum Piece with 3 difficulty levels (Piece 2, Book 1)
Here is a short snare drum piece for the public domain Christmas song ‘Deck The Halls’. The snare drum sheet music is grade 1-3 level. The X’s are snare rim hits.
You can get the guitar and ukulele version here: Christmas Songs Ebook – Guitar Ukulele And Lyrics
This book was written over the course of 1 year for a group of youth drummers (Montgomeryshire Youth Music Drumline) in Powys, Wales. I have compiled the year’s pieces into an ebook that can be used by other drum teacher, or by self taught drummers. The pieces are similar to Snare Drum Sheet Music style pieces, but with the added timbre of a floor tom. You can achieve quite an epic cinematic sound by combining the two drum voices in unison. Difficulty levels from Grade 1 to Grade 3-4.
When you purchase the book, you will receive a .pdf file that you can keep and use forever.
You can email the .pdf file privately to your students
You can print out unlimited copies for your students or for yourself
You cannot resell the .pdf or distribute the .pdf file online in any way (not even for free). This also applies to exported images, photos or scanned copies of the book
The 10 pieces are performance pieces for drums, with no backing. Drum groups, or individual drummers can perform these pieces. They have been written to sound good as standalone pieces – they are not just practice exercises. The pieces do not focus on many dynamics, but they do cover many techniques, rhythms and some rudiments, from quarter notes to sextuplets and triplets, and from flams to drags and buzz rolls.
Some of the pieces have multiple parts, which may be played together. So, if your group has varying ability levels, some can play part 1, some part 2, and some part 3. Not all the pieces have 2 or 3 parts. Please check the contents page to match up the pieces. I have compiled the book in order of difficulty. The levels go from about grade 1 up to grade 3-4 level.
Reading Tip: I developed the writing over the year. For pieces with two stave lines – the top line is the snare and the bottom line is the floor tom.
This book is a follow on from “10 Snare Drum Pieces – Book 1”, written in 2015. That book was for snare drum only, and in the last 2 years has been purchased by 60 people from all around the world, many of which are teachers themselves who are using the book to teach their students or drum groups with.
I hope this new ebook will inspire more groups of this type. I’m sure it’s not the first time it’s been done with groups of drummers, each playing a snare and floor tom, but I do think it is very rare to see it. I hope to inspire other groups to adopt this idea. I’m sure this won’t be the first and last book of it’s kind, because I intend to continue teaching the MYM Drumline for many years to come, and I will be writing new pieces for the group regularly.
Recommended reading for use with this ebook:
→ Accent Techniques – Down, Tap, Up, Full Strokes
→ Reading Buzz Rolls And Double Stroke Markings
This piece was written for a youth drumming group but it was too difficult for them as they were not quite ready in ability. I’m sure there will be plenty of people out there that will find this a good and achievable challenge.
The drum piece will require a snare drum and floor tom, so you can play it on a regular kit, but you may need to move them closer together.
Use this piece to practice your subdivisions and rudiments, to include Sextuplets, Single Stroke Four’s and Paradiddle-diddle’s.
The left foot hi hats (X below the bottom line) are actually floor tom rims, and the X on the snare drum line is snare rim.
This snare drum piece has a military sound to it.When played at 90bpm, the piece is fairly short at 45 seconds and could be learned from memory with a good amount of practice. The rhythms change often so this is not easy. The primary aim for the drummer is to sight read the sheet music whilst playing.
The first difficulty levels has cotchets and quavers, and crotchet rest. In other words, it has quarter notes, eigth notes and quarter note rests. There is one dynamic change and also some use of accents.
The second difficulty level includes crescendo dynamics and beginner to intermediate rhythms.
There are crescendos and other dynamic changes on the intermediate difficulty level, which also include buzz rolls and intermediate rhythms.
Related: Group snare drum piece with 3 difficulty levels (Piece 5, Book 1)
Related: (Premium) 10 Snare Drum Pieces – Book 1 – Levels 1-3
This snare drum piece focuses on using 8th note rests before playing an 8th note, so that the snare drum plays on the off beat. The off beats are combined with various rhythms that you would also find up to grade 2 level, consisting of 16th note, quarter note and 8th note combinations. There are also some snares with an X note head – these are to be played on the snare rim.
Related (Premium): (Premium) – 10 Snare Drum Pieces – Book 1 – Levels 1-3 (PDF ebooks)
Related: Snare Drum Piece with Basic Rhythms for Grade 1 Sight Reading
Related: 16 bar Snare Drum Exercise – with dynamics – Grade 1-2
This snare drum sheet is ideal for practicing the single stroke four drum rudiment and also for playing sextuplet rhythms within a piece.
The piece could be played by a group of snare drums or other drums if the players are at an intermediate level of above (at least grade 3).
There are 5 sections labeled A-E, and A is recalled at the end for a repeat. Each section should be practiced seperately and mastered before playing through the whole snare drum piece in one go.
This short snare drum piece works on a few of the fundamental subdivisions and rhythms used at grade 1 level and leading up to it. The piece consists of quarter notes, 8th notes, 16th notes and quarter note rests. The performance technique of playing on the rim of the snare is also included, where the X note head is displayed instead of the usual snare.
