Abstract: The invention is a music teaching method designed for the student of non-pitched percussion instruments incorporating two major components. First, a limited selection of basic percussion exercises and variations written for one or more percussion instruments is printed on opaque music manuscript paper or other music display media. Finally, a series of overlays including preprinted, complimentary percussion music exercises is provided for use in combination with the aforementioned basic percussion exercises. The overlays may be alternately superimposed in a functional relationship with the basic percussion exercises to create hybrid percussion exercises having adequate visual representation of the repetitive rhythmic patterns inherent in percussion music. Thus, an exhaustive collection of percussion exercises may be provided in a reasonably sized volume, reducing the cost of a more cumbersome printed volume that would be impracticable to publish and market.