Drumming Terms | |
Bart Elliott shares standard musical and drumming terms, words, phrases and expressions. | |
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| There are 28 entries in the glossary. | |
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| Term | Definition |
| Back-beat | The weak pulse in the measure, namely beats 2 and 4 when playing in Common Time or 4/4 time signature. The term is often used to describe when the drummer plays the Snare drum in a basic dance rhythm. The strong pulse would be on beats 1 and 3. |
| Batter Head | Referencing to the drumhead that is actually played. On a Snare Drum or Tom-Tom, this would mean that top head, which is struck. On a Kick Drum or Bass Drum it's the drumhead in which the pedal beater strikes. If a single drum has two drumheads, one parallel to the batter head, this is typically referred to as the resonant head. |
| Buzz Roll | Another name for Multiple Bounce Roll, but often times played in a more closed fashion so that the sound is like ripping paper. |
| Common Time | A time signature synonymous with 4/4 time.
This is one of two time signatures (the other being Cut Time) that do not have to be written as numbers. Four-four time (4/4) is used so much that it is often called Common Time and is notated as a bold C. 
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| Cross-stick | Using a drumstick, this is played by laying the stick across the drumhead with the end of the stick extending past the rim. The palm/heel of the hand stays in contact with the drumhead (close to center), dampening the snare drum while holding the stick. Lift the stick, keeping one end of stick on the head, and the other comes down and hits the rim. When played properly, it sounds much like a woodblock. The most popular way to play this is to flip the stick around so that the butt of the stick is used across the rim; giving the deepest and lowest tone possible. |
| Cut Time |
A time signature synonymous with 2/2 time. See also Cut-Time Feel |
| Cut-Time Feel | Playing any groove twice as fast as its regular tempo, while the measures of music continue as normal. Often confused with Half-time. To achieve this, the back-beat is played on the & or AND of the beat, rather than the normal fashion ... playing on beats 2 and 4 as in 4/4 time. There is also a music notation for cut-time where the music is written normally, but you are instructed to play it twice as fast ... which is what cut-time means.
This terms is used in relation to the pulse of the music, which, 99% of the time, is the quarter-note. |
| Dampened Snare | A term used to inform the performer to add something to the batter head of a drum in order to decrease the resonance. This is typically something more than just a Moon Gel, like a wallet or handkerchief which makes more of a drastic change in the sound. |
| Double-Time Feel | Playing any groove twice as fast as the regular tempo, while the measures of music continue as normal. This is synonymous with Cut-time feel. The Double-Time Feel is when the groove goes twice as fast; Double-Time (without the word feel) would tell the entire band to play the music twice as fast too. This terms is used in relation to the pulse of the music, which, 99% of the time, is the quarter-note. See also Cut-time Feel |
| Ghost Stroke | A soft/light tap, almost imperceptible to the ear. The drumstick height used when performing these strokes should be 1/4-inch to 1/2-inch above the surface; the closer to the drumhead the better. Ghost Strokes are used to colour rhythmic patterns within a groove of fill.
Typically, when performing Ghost Strokes within a groove, such as the right hand on the HiHat and left hand on the Snare drum, the performer will want the ghosted notes to be softer than any notes played on the HiHat. Failing to do this will make the Ghost Strokes sound more like Tap Strokes ... and they won\'t blend properly within the groove being played. |
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