The Drum Notation Tree and Time Signature

Question 1- What is a Drum Notation Tree and how does it look like ?

Answer : A Drum Notation Tree looks as follows,

As you can see the tree branches out from the whole note to 16th notes above. You can even extend that to 32nd notes which is twice the number of 16th notes !

Now try this Single stroke exercise uniformly with Metronome at 60 BPM,

- 1 Bar of Quarter notes followed by

- 1 Bar of Eight notes followed by

- 1 Bar of 16th notes followed by

- 1 Bar of Quarter notes

- Rinse and repeat this for 5 mins non-stop !! 

If you have mastered this add in the 32nd note and repeat exercise !

Question 2 - What are odd and even time signatures and how do i read them ?

Answer - The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are to be contained in each bar and which note value is to be given one beat (per Wikipedia)

So 4/4 in below diagram means there are 4 beats per measure and you play 4 measures of the same

In the next diagram below, 3/ 4 means that there are 3 beats per measure and we play it 4 times. The tempo is demoted by the Quarter Note pulse and its speed is 100 BPM (Beats per Minute)