Chart Reading Tips

Prerequisite

The ability to read rhythms accurately on a single plane, ie. A snare drum or practice pad.

Goals

Having the ability to interpret the written rhythms the drum set.

When interpreting, knowing which parts of the rhythmic phrase to stress.

Reading Drum Parts

Some arrangers write specific drum parts in a big band setting. A good drum chart will reveal the style, important rhythmic information extracted from the melody, the road map or form, dynamics, and pertinent terms dealing with the mood of a section. For example, build, softly, expressively.

Lead sheets are most commonly found in smaller ensembles. A lead sheet contains the melody/form, chord changes, and sometimes a style or tempo indication. You are expected to formulate a drum part with the above information.

Experienced players know hundreds of tunes from memory. If they don’t know a tune, after hearing it once or twice they will be able to play it and sound confident. If I don’t know the called tune, some questions I ask would be:

• What is the style?
• Sticks or brushes?
• What is the form?

When performing a piece of music with a big band or small group, seek out reference recordings. This will provide you with a starting point and maybe a different approach that you may not have thought of.