Drum set notation stylesBefore I continue, a quick comment on the different styles of fully notated drum parts.
There are 3 basic styles of notation for fully notated drum set parts that I’ve run across. They are shown at the top of this post. They are all perfectly valid and can be used to get the information to the drummer. As with all music notation the bottom line is, you want to strive to be clear and consistent. The style you use is up to you or may be dictated by the client or a specific situation.
Of these examples ‘A’ is the style I’ve always used. What I’m thinking when I notate is, drums and cymbals to be played with the hands are stems up, with the feet stems down. The rhythms are to be played are clear but there are are a lot more rests to keep up with. ‘B’ eliminates the rests and is also a very common notation style for drums. ‘C’ is a short hand that I have usually seen used by drummers who are writing charts for themselves. It is quick to write and doesn’t take up much space, excellent for a short hand style of writing.
The techniques I’ll cover in the next few blog posts can be applied to to any of these notation styles. As far as a reference for what line or space each instrument appears on, what notehead is used and other drum set notation considerations, I refer to the book “Guide to Standardized Drumset Notation” by Norman Weinberg. It is a thorough, well researched and well thought out reference. There are a few minor points I don’t quite agree with but on the whole I think it’s an excellent reference. Drum set notation is one of those areas like chord symbols that vary regionally, by genre and/or by the arranger or composer’s training. I fear we will never see a 100% agreement on all the details. But as I’ve said before if you strive to be clear and consistent you’ll find most musicians will give you what you need.
Hinch
John at sound check with drummer Uriel Jones and "The Funk Brothers"Many if not most of the projects I arrange for require drum set parts. A drum set part can be as simple as measures filled with slashes that layout the form, to detailed notation showing every drum or cymbal struck by every limb. My experience is the best drum set parts fall somewhere in between, with just enough notation to clearly get the idea across yet not overly notated and cluttered.
In previous versions of all notation software programs drums set parts have always been one of the more time consuming and well, “tweaky” parts to create. With the introduction of Sibelius 6 many of those “tweaky bits” have been smoothed over. Features like numbering repeated bars, multiple bar repeats, the ideas library and a number of new and some revamped plugins have made the process faster and simpler that it has ever been. My workflow has significantly improved in this area and I’d like to bring some of these features and plugins to your attention.
But before do that lets define the different types of notation in drum parts to clarify. Then I’ll show you some techniques I use to create each one.
Drum set notation types
1. Fully notated
2. Repeat bars
3. Slash bars
4. Rhythmic notation bars
5. Combination notated and slashes
6. Cues for kicks
7. Cues for navigation
Next in this series of blog posts I’ll show you techniques for creating each of these drum set notation styles in Sibelius.
Hinch
Tagged as:
Drum charts in Sibelius,
Drum set notation,
Sibelius
This has nothing directly to do with music notation but I will file it under organization because I think it’s a very handy tip.
Like many of my clients and colleagues, my friend Barry Green (fabulous Nashville trombonist) recently changed his email address. He reminded me this past week that I had sent him yet another email to his old comcast address. Now, I know he reminded me a month ago and I know I changed his info in my address book. So why do I keep sending email to Barry’s old comcast address?
Mac Mail Autofill
There is a handy feature in Mac Mail that starts to auto fill an address when you start to type in the “To:” area of an email. Mac Mail keeps a cache of all the addresses in your address book and any email address you’ve ever sent to. So when I type “Barry” all the Barry’s I know come up. Barry’s comcast address was appearing first, so without thinking, I would just type enter when I’d see “Barry Green” and not take the time to scroll down to see Barry’s new gmail address.
How to delete Barry’s (or any other) old email address from Autofill
Note: For those of you who’ve read my signal flow articles the solution to this is:
Mac Mail Window > Previous Recipients > search ‘name’ of recipient > select name@oldemailaddress.com > Delete
The step by step version:
1. In Mac Mail go to the Window menu and select ‘Previous Recipients’
2. In the that little search box with the magnifying glass icon (top right) type whatever name you are looking for, in this case ‘Barry’ or I could use ‘Green.’ That brings up all the email addresses with the word ‘Barry’ in them. Now I get a list with all the Barrys
and I see Barry’s comcast address and his gmail address.
3. Select the Barry’s comcast address from the list and click on the ‘Remove From List’ button at the bottom of the window.
That should do it, Barry’s comcast address should now be a thing of the past in your email program and Barry will be ever so grateful!
Hinch
P.S. A great place to hear Barry Green and some of Nashville’s finest musicians is with the Nashville Jazz Orchestra at the French Quarter Cafe on tuesday nights.
