DRUM CHARTING COURSE
How to Write a Quick Chart When The Gig Starts in 2 Hours
You get the call for a gig, it starts in two hours and you will be playing two sets of original material…… What do you do? I was the one who got the call and I was the one who had to figure out this original artists material before we jumped on the stage. Some…
Read MoreStep 7 Practice the Basic Drum Patterns With Tracks
Practice The Basic Drum Patterns This lesson will help you identify the drum patterns you hear in recordings. When charting a song, find the basic pattern that best fits the one you hear and notate that pattern at the bottom of your chart. This method works great when you are not familiar with notation or…
Read MoreStep 6 Learn the Most Common Bass Drum and Snare Drum Patterns That are Used the Most
Step 2 How to Determine the Time Signature and Tempo of a Song
The time signature must be determined in order to count how many bars there are in a song (which we will cover in Step 4). The three most common time signatures are: 4/4 , 3/4 , and 6/8. The top number tells you how many beats to count in a measure (another word for “bar”), and the bottom number represents…
Read MoreIntro: What Your Chart Should Look Like and Other Kinds of Charts
Download these charts and copy to your Drum Chart Builder Account
Read MoreStep 3 How to Determine the Feel Of The Song
It is very important to recognize and label the feel of the song on the chart. The feel is the way the music is played. in most genres of popular music, there is straight feel, shuffle feel, waltz (or 3/4 feel,) and 6/8 feel. “My Favorite Mistake” by Sheryl Crow, for example, is a rock…
Read MoreStep 4 How to Identify Song Form and How to Count Out The Bars
Step 4 Identify Song Form and Counting the Bars Identifying the parts of a song allows you to see the whole picture. When you know how many bars are in each part of the song, you will be able to play a better musical phrase. Popular songs are constructed with musical phrases that are usually…
Read More