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!
