Studio Drummer – Chart Reading – ‘Musicians Shorthand’

*MUSICIAN’S SHORTHAND.*

If you’re experienced in studio work or chart reading you’ll notice one of these 3 situations arising constantly.

1. Charts are so messy you can’t read them.  For example, I remember a David Foster chart.  It was so messy it was almost unreadable!  But it was David Foster’s hand script.

2. Certain rhythmic figures are so messy you can’t read them. 

3. Certain rhythmic figures are written in an incorrect way, which are not easily recognizable to you.  These figures may amount to the same thing mathematically but they do not adhere to the rules of how figures are supposed to be written.

After you’ve been reading for some time you come to recognize many standard figures.  This is also good news since you don’t have to even think about them. You will just come to know how to handle and interpret them around the kit.   Yet you will encounter some chart writers who are unaware of these rules about writing rhythmic figures. 

I have what I’d call a drummer’s shorthand where I can quickly decode a figure and jot it down either on the stave or just above or below it.  I use the snare notes on the 2 and 4, which I notate as the constant and work the figure around the 2 and 4 as if I were grooving through the figure and catching the shots at the same time.  It probably wouldn’t be decipherable to anyone else but that doesn’t matter in this case.  As long as I understand it that’s all that matters.

I also may not be required to groove through this passage.  I may be required to hit clean and syncopated shots.  But this method still works very well for this too.

It gives me a quick and easy way to decode a phrase without spending precious time holding up a session.

*A FINE MUSICIAN ONCE TOLD ME THAT EVERY ACCOMPLISHED MUSICIAN HAS HIS OR HER OWN FORM OF SHORTHAND.*

It only makes sense that this would be the case.  Write your own charts, even for the practice.  It is very good to get into writing your own drum charts.  It gets you even more acquainted with all the symbols and terminology and develops your own writing and correct interpretation of hand written musical phrases and dynamic notations.  It also develops your ability to hear a phrase with your ears and translate it to paper, very important!

For me personally I have spent and still do spend considerable extra time making sure that I’ve interpreted and more importantly wrote out the phrase correctly so that it becomes more common place in my own mind.

This is one of those skill areas that requires constant upkeep and revisiting to maintain, but it’s essential. 

However, I want to return to the issue of personal chart writing!

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Studio Drummer – Chart Reading Installment 3.. More info!

*IF YOU’RE A CHART READER THEN READ ON…*

If you have experience reading music from a drum set perspective you will know the challenges it represents.  We can of course count ourselves lucky that we’re not piano players reading 2 staves of music simultaneously or 3 staves if you’re an organist!  I honestly don’t know how they process that much information!

However there are challenges that pertain to our instrument that are unique to drum kit playing.

The biggest one is that we play an intensely physical instrument, the most intense of instruments in this physical capacity.  Reading a chart while playing with the utmost physicality is a highly challenging skill!

And of course sometimes you hit the ditch so to speak.  This is inevitable for even the best of the best.  Another issue that other musicians don’t have to deal with is that we have to set up our charts either set up 90 degrees left or 90 degrees right. 

The music is never directly in front of us. It has to be set up on the left or right.  I personally set up on either side depending on where the MD is.  That way I have a direct sight line to the musical director for cues etc by looking just above my music stand.

Add the often immense physicality to this mix and you can guess what happens very quickly.

*IT’S EXTREMELY EASY TO GET LOST ON A CHART.*

 A lot of players need to look exactly where they are playing as they go around the kit doing fills or locating cymbals and when that is the case the problem only intensifies since that player is required to disconnect from the chart to perform what he must be able to see in his execution.

As a side note to this point you may want to get in the habit, as I have for years, of not having to look at the physical instruments.  My setup is exactly the same every time I set up.  I use the same kit and I know exactly where everything is situated.  I don’t have to look at it.  This greatly alleviates this whole problem.

There are very valuable tricks that I use that I’ve incorporated myself.  I’ve not heard of other drummers using these helpful tricks although I know that every experienced player has their own way of dealing with these types of issues.  Anyway I’m happy to pass them along to you!

watch for installment 4!  Good info!

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Chart Reading (continued)

*YOU NEED TO BRING YOUR SKILLS IN THE AREA ALONG WITH YOUR PLAYING AND ARTISTIC VOCABULARY.*

For example I’ve been on large sessions where there have been charts for a piece of music that are literally 8 to 10 pages long.  I’ve had microphone boom stands surrounding me with charts taped end to end encircling me entirely.

But since I’ve worked on the skill of reading I have the ability to pull it off but I’ll be honest, it can push you to the very edge of your abilities.

Long charts are most often the result of a producer or writer printing out a piece of music notation that is meant to encompass a number of different instruments.  So the chart is double staved or sometimes triple staved.  To the new comer this means that you’re reading one line and then jumping down either 2 or 3 lines to read the next of your designated stave.

You don’t want to be asleep in this situation.

I don’t have the space here to go into a reading lesson.  There are many materials that are well written and make good sense to the new person if you happen to be one.  You can step through the process of reading and start to incorporate it into your playing.

The incorporation of reading into your playing quite frankly takes a lot of getting used to.

*AT THIS POINT IF YOU’RE NEW TO CHART READING…

I would encourage you to move on from this chapter BUT… please go out and get yourself as much good source material as you can find on the subject.  This is just a discipline that can be learned.

Look for a teacher who can speed up the process for you.  Then return to this chapter and continue..

Join me for the next installment!

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