Drum notation borrows the look of melodic notation but throws away the pitch. Instead of a treble or bass clef, you'll see two short vertical lines at the start of the staff — that's the neutral clef, and it's the universal sign that says "this is a percussion part." There's no "C" or "G" here; each line and space is a position, and each position is a drum.
The staff is read from left to right, divided into bars by vertical bar lines. The two numbers stacked at the very start are the time signature: the top number tells you how many beats fit in a bar, and the bottom number tells you which note value gets called "one beat." In 4/4 — by far the most common — there are four beats per bar, and the quarter note is the beat. In 6/8, there are six beats per bar, and the eighth note is the beat.
The drums you hit go in fixed places on the staff. Higher-pitched instruments sit higher; lower ones sit lower. For this curriculum the layout is: hi-hat in the space above the top line, ride on the top line, both as X-shaped noteheads; snare in the middle space, third from the bottom; kick in the bottom space, stems pointing down; hi-hat foot as an X below the staff. The toms fan out around the snare: high tom in the top space, mid tom on the fourth line, floor tom in the second space from the bottom. No drum is written on the middle line itself, so the snare's space sits just above it.
Every note has a length, called its value. A whole note lasts four beats. Cut it in half: a half note, two beats. Cut that in half: a quarter note, one beat. Cut again: an eighth, half a beat. Again: a sixteenth, a quarter of a beat. And once more: a thirty-second, an eighth of a beat. Every note value also has an equivalent rest — a silence of exactly the same duration. The exercises below stay on the snare so you can put your eyes on the page and learn what each shape sounds like in your hands.