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percussion

What does sheet music for a drum set look like? I have know idea how it should look. The song I'm writing includes a kickdrum, low tom, high tom, snare, crash, closed hi-hat, open hi-hat, and a chinese cymbal

Re: percussion

Reply #1 –
Barry Graham (?) has some great stuff that will help you.
Perhaps he will spot this thread.

p.s. I have no idea...

Re: percussion

Reply #2 –
Whoops, you're right. Sorry for any spelling and grammar mistakes.

Re: percussion

Reply #3 –
Hi Andrew,
unfortunately, it seems there are several standards.  My son, who is a drummer of some skill, tells me that the following is quite common and I believe is the standard used when he was sitting his exams (here in Australia).  Called (I think) AMEB for (Australian Music Education Board) - but I could be wrong, he's not here to ask so I can't confirm it.

First, though the clef is a percussion clef, I'm going to identify the lines and spaces as if they were bass clef - sorry I can't upload an image.

  • Closed hi-hat................. X note head with + sign on B space above staff
  • Open hi-hat................... X note head with o (small circle) sign on B space above staff
  • Ride Cymbal................... X note head on A line
  • Ride Cymbal bell.............. diamond note head on A line
  • Crash Cymbal................. circled X note head on A line
  • Cowbell......................... diamond note head on C ledger line (above staff)
  • Snare Drum.................... normal note head on E space
  • Cross stick on snare........ X note head on E space
  • Tom 1........................... normal note head on G space
  • Tom 2........................... normal note head on F line
  • Tom 3........................... normal note head on C space
  • Tom 4........................... normal note head on B line
  • Bass drum 1 (right foot).... normal note head on A space
  • Bass drum 2 (left foot)..... normal note head on G line
  • Hi-hat (with foot)........... X note head on F space (below staff)
  • Hi-hat splash (with foot).. circled X note head on F space (below staff)
  • Ghost note.................... brackets around note
  • Flam............................. Grace note (slashed stem) tied to non-grace note on drum required
  • Double stroke................. single slash on stem
  • Buzz stroke.................... triple slash on stem
I'm not sure if it is important, but except for the 2 bass drum and 2 hi-hat(with foot) the stems were all up.  The 4 mentioned were the only ones with stem down.  I have transcribed this from one of his books that he loaned me several days ago - I wanted to know about it too :)

Some of these will need text added to the notation - the circled X notes, the brackets etc.

Hope this helps,
Lawrie
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: percussion

Reply #4 –
G'day Lawrie

Your list looks pretty good to me.
Just a couple of notes from what I've seen in a past life as a professional copyist in Melbourne.

Most arrangers write the Hi Hat in the G space and the Ride, Crash and Splash cymbals at B above the staff (with notations like "Ride").
When I used NWC I put the Crash cymbal on the first ledger line at C to allow me to circle it by hand.

The foot hi-hat is rarely notated below the staff- I guess they leave it to the drummer to figure out which of the notes in the G space is the footpedal.
The swing pattern is usually quarter hit/open followed by eighth foot/closed, eighth hit/closed on the hi-hat all repeated.

Tom-Toms are written down from the G space to the B line with the notations "Toms" (although the drummer will probably guess that).

Rim shots are usually noted "RS".
Cowbells and other odd bits can be placed in the B space or G space and noted.

I see some variations in the commercial charts I've studied(mostly US) but pretty close to what your list and my experience shows. Some just place all the cymbals at B above the staff and note the cymbal to be used.

There are a couple of PDF score examples (with MIDI files) here:-
http://users.tpg.com.au/btgraham/files/HarveysTune.zip (Not quite a standard part)
http://users.tpg.com.au/btgraham/files/Enchanted.zip (More like a standard drum part)

Mind you - these are just my opinion - feel free to ignore.

Re: percussion

Reply #5 –
G'day Barry,
I happily bow down to your greater knowledge and experience :)

As an aside, I rather enjoyed the 2 arrangements you linked to.  Do you have a web site where I can access other examples of your work?

Better yet, do you have big band arrangements for sale?  The big band I play with is actually a student band and is always short of funds, so if there are new charts available at a reasonable price they would be looked on with some favour I believe...

Lawrie
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.

Re: percussion

Reply #6 –
Lawrie,

Contact me at btgraham(at)tpg(dot)com(dot)au and I'll see what I can do.

Re: percussion

Reply #7 –
Lawrie,
If you want some wonderful big band charts, check out the Essentially Ellington collection from http://www.jalc.org/04%5F05/ed_pdf/1_Print_Music_Catalog.pdf

You can buy the EE scores for US$10 each, and extract the parts yourself using NWC2.  These are transcriptions of Ellington recordings, and some are challenging.

You can get stock arrangements of many "ordinary" big band charts from the 20th century here http://www.yestertunes.com/html/cacc.html  I think these sell for US 22 cents a page for shipments outside the US.

Email me through my email link at http://ellingtonweb.ca for a private message on this topic.

David
 

Re: percussion

Reply #8 –
Thanks David,
I'll try to get to these soon - got a coupla' hundred NG and Forum messages to catch up on.

Ultimately our band director has the final say but I will certainly point him to these resources - and check 'em out myself.

Lawrie
I plays 'Bones, crumpets, coronets, floosgals, youfonymums 'n tubies.