Do drummers use sheet music?

Here's an example being played

[media=https://youtu.be/tlKIk9OpqVg]

Another

[media=https://youtu.be/rz1FwmIypg0]

No, they use blanket music... 😉🤣

Yes they read music, but there is specialized notation non-pitched instruments and for "trap set" use.

Just as people learning various instruments may need to learn special C-clefs (piano music uses the treble/G- clef for the higher notes and the bass clef for the lower notes), drummers using a trap set know how to read a special notation for their set of drums & cymbals. (Note that percussionists play a lot of tuned instruments/instruments whose tones/pitches are important.)

(See
[i]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percussion_notation[/i]
and
[i]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_tablature[/i])

I can't believe no drummers have answered this yet! I have a family member who is a drummer and I can tell you that they do use sheet music although they can improvise as well. I don't know the answers to your more detailed questions, though.

I'm guessing it depends upon the drums and the music genre. My granddaughter is (or was in high school and college) a percussionist. I know she had to follow sheet music when she was on tympany or the various other smaller percussion instruments in chamber groups, bands, and orchestras. But I'm guessing that there is more improv with bass drummers, particularly in jazz and rock. I'm thinking of the legendary performance by Gene Krupa on Sing! Sing! Sing! at Carnegie Hall where he continually refused to let the Benny Goodman band end the song, launching into a solo and keeping the beat going until they came back in.

Here ya go - don’t have the foggiest what it means.

https://www.drumeo.com/beat/how-to-read-drum-music/

What you are missing is what is called "ascent" symbols.

Yet please don't lessen the abilities of those, that do or don't read sheet music, no matter the instrument.

I have played the djembe without sheet music as well as classical guitar.

Yes well some do

Egs

Yes, there is definitely sheet music for drums that uses a special notation.

Yes they do. My nephew is a drummer and has music with all the drum breaks.

It's just like any other music, except we generally don't play "pitches"--you see the notation is based on a 5-piece kit.

I will write out a particularly challenging phrase. but generally, I write the bpm(beats per minute) on my set list and set the metronome to that to hit the right tempo.

Charts, for me, are very basic, where I'll write out a number of bars the choruses or verses are, high hat or ride cymbal, and make notes about the feel of the song (Bo Diddley beat, surf, shuffle, etc.)

They do

Yes - my daughter is a drummer