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A drummer's guide to music theory and notation...

Information for Teachers

Learn to read drum music is suitable for approximately ages 10 and upwards, however this is only a really rough guide, as many students younger than this will manage just fine. The books have been written to suit a broad mix of drumming styles and learner abilities, so they should prove useful for a wide range of students.

Setting a few pages at the end of each lesson as ‘homework’ is a great way to use these books. Marking can then be done the following week, or in-between lessons if you’d prefer. Experience has shown that pages can be marked quickly and often in the time it takes for the student to warm up ready for their lesson. Any mistakes can then be discussed with the student so that they are clear on where they went wrong.

Approach to notation

Instead of restricting the books to a single one of the many methods of notation in use, Learn to Read Drum Music aims to teach the necessary skills to cope with almost any kind of drum notation. The fact that one exam board chooses to use a separate line for each different type of cymbal, whilst another chooses to use a circled ‘x’ to indicate a crash cymbal can sometimes get very frustrating. However this lack of consistency is unlikely to change, so these books deliberately recognise the many different approaches and aim to equip their readers with the skills to cope.

How to order

The books can be purchased from Amazon via the links on our shop page.

Agogo publishing is a firm believer in the ‘every little helps’ concept and so at least 50 pence from each book that is sold will be donated to Teenage Cancer Trust. To find out more about this excellent charity please visit the Teenage Cancer Trust website.

Additional resources

A teacher’s answer book is currently in progress, containing full answers to all exercises and review sections in both books 1 and 2.

We are also working on a smartphone app, containing quiz questions, reference material and flashcards. These can either be used by the teacher in the lesson or by the student on their own phone/tablet laptop etc.

About the Author

Andy Green has been teaching drums and percussion to all ages for many years and holds a BA(Hons) degree in Music and Popular Music. Through playing in Rock bands, Jazz bands, Musical Theatre bands, Symphony orchestras, steel pan groups, Soul bands, Concert bands and Percussion ensembles (to name but a few!) he has encountered many different styles of music and even more different styles of musical notation.

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