Drum tablature

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.

The number of lines in a specific tab will vary depending on the number of different drums used during a specific section of music.

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: The common time rhythm pattern below is first presented in standard notation; following is the corresponding pattern translated into drum tab.