Gameplay
The screen setup is simple. On the left side, notes scroll vertically downwards. Colorful animations for each song are displayed in right side of the screen. Each note scroll consists of 6 columns: one each for the Hi hat, snare drum, bass drum, hi tom, low tom and cymbal. Individual notes are represented by small colored bars that scroll downward in the columns. To play the correct note, the player must hit one or two of these pads and/or stomp the pedal when the note bars reach the yellow line. The note scroll in DrumMania is in essence a drum tablature timed with the music and placed vertically.

The player's accuracy is judged for each note played, and while the individual note judgments have changed throughout the series, the current system uses Perfect, Great, Good, Poor, and Miss to evaluate performance of each note. Ratings of Poor or Miss will deplete the player's "Groove Gauge", while accurate play will replenish it. If the Groove Gauge is emptied completely, the game ends. Players will be able to play anywhere from three to five songs depending on the game's configuration, with the potential to earn one or two additional stages in certain versions of the game if performance is good enough.

At the completion of a song, players are given a letter rank for their performance which can range anywhere from E to A, as well as S and SS depending on how well the song was played, and how the particular release of the game being played computes ranks.

Generally, the breakdown is as follow:

If there was only "perfect" and "great", player will score a "SS"
If less than 5% of notes are good, miss or poor, the score will be an "S"
In a 3-stage setting, players who receive a combination of "S,S,S" (2nd-7th Mix) or "S,S,A" (8th Mix onwards) will get to play an "Extra Stage". In some versions, players who get an S on "Extra Stage" may play the "Encore Stage". From 9th mix on, player will need 95% "perfect" to get "Encore Stage", while having 98% "perfect" will allow player to play "Premium Encore". To reach those stage, player cannot use auto-accompaniment (in which many players would probably have used, especially the auto-bass), and during the encore/premieum encore player cannot play a level above the song they used for the extra stage (for example, if they play basic on extra, they can only play basic in encore)

Because DrumMania only has five drum pads and one bass pedal, each pad may produce different sounds at different points in a song. For example, the high tom will sometimes act as a floor tom, and both the hi-hat and ride cymbal often take on the role of crash cymbals. Less commonly, parts of the drum sets will produce more unusual sounds, such as vocals or sound effects.

Most songs in the game have 3 difficulties: basic, advanced and extreme. The difficulties are ranked out of 10 (1st-3rd mix) or out of 100 (4th mix onwards). The extreme version of a song usually resembles a real drum part, thus making the game sufficiently challenging for advanced players.

Session Play
One of the major selling points of DrumMania is its ability to be linked to another of Konami's Bemani games, GuitarFreaks. This allows up to 3 players to get together for a virtual jam session. When set up correctly, the music will play from both games, and the players' guitar and drum sounds will be relayed between the two games as well. This is known for being quite loud and extravagant at times.

Konami's numbering scheme for the GuitarFreaks and DrumMania series is such that the current release of DrumMania is numbered one less than the current release of GuitarFreaks. For example, as of this writing, GuitarFreaks 11thMIX can be linked with DrumMania 10thMIX.

This naming system changed completely with the 2005 release of DrumMania V & GuitarFreaks V, with the "V" representing the fifth anniversary of the series. This tradition will be continued, as Drummania V2 and Guitar Freaks V2 was released in November. Otherwise, the functionality is the same.