Writing for Drum Set

[rrayner]

I've created a little "cheat sheet" for myself for what I use as standard dance/swing/jazz band drum notation. It doesn't have to be this rigid, but it is what I am using. Essentially, drummers say, "Just tell me which line or space is which specific drum sound, and I can do it." But, I want to be consistent in my writing.

With the help of others, I have begun creating two drum parts: a "working" part for the actual GM pitches and sounds; and another parallel drum part that looks pretty for the live drummer.

The attached file represents "standard" notation for drums that I have found in several sources. (Please excuse the outlandish time signature -- I couldn't find a way to get rid of it. Time signature removed, as per Sherry's guidance above. RRR) Also, the stem direction is arbitrary -- I wanted to get the stems out of the way for the text, so I used upper and lower voice to change the stem direction. I removed the bar lines for the same reason.

Ralph Rayner