The traditional performance mode of Shangdang Drum Book is: one or more people hold drums, boards, gongs, cymbals, two handfuls, two reeds, Hu Hu, three strings, octagonal drums, erhu, flute and sheng, accompanied by themselves, and perform alternately with rap. Among them, there are various singing methods, including solo, rotation, duet, lead singer, chorus, backup singer, etc. According to different occasions and needs, there are various stage performances such as sitting, standing and walking. Some skilled drummers can play flat drum, hanging board, foot gong, small gong, boring gong, foot bang, wooden fish, cymbals, cymbals and mallets at the same time.

The music singing of Shangdang Drum Book is unique and rich. It is a combination of early traditional "drum tune" and later "willow tune", which belongs to plate cavity cutting. So that in terms of artistic expression and inheritance, the two systems still have their own emphasis and systems. His music singing methods are not only fast, slow, stamping and grasping, but also functional singing methods such as crying, sadness, joy and anger. There are many kinds of boards, such as starting board, double board, tight board, adagio, loose board, etc., as well as more than ten kinds of commonly used musical instruments and noisy music cards. In the long-term development and evolution, it gradually absorbed and integrated local local minor, Taoist tune, folk selling tune and singing elements such as bangzi, Luozi and Yangko, which were deeply loved by local people.