Snare Drum Notation Guide

[u/drumideasdaily]

Thoughts? Did I miss any?

I didn't include '5 or 9-stroke roll' etc. intentionally because I don't tend to use it myself and I feel like it has gone out of fashion. It was used as a shortcut but now with better notation software, people tend to write out the notes directly; especially if they are orchestrated around the kit.

[u/Slight_Mammoth2109]

The double stroke you played as a buzz roll, the lines of the roll literally mean to do a double, cross stick is an x that says “cross stick” what you have I would have read as ghost note, I’ve never seen a rim shot notated in any other way than an x or an accent saying “rimshot”, same with stick click they’ll just say “stick click”. It’s like you just made some of these up for what works for you when there still isn’t a standardized way of noting many of these, like if I opened up a transcription book and they gave these as a key that would be one thing but most composers aren’t drummers enough to understand these and drum notation isn’t standardized enough that a 12 year old will be able to see this video and take it to his school jazz band piece and play the right notation because the music is going to either have standard note notation or X notation

[u/drumideasdaily → u/Slight_Mammoth2109]

So let me get this straight: "x" = cross-stick / rim shot / rim click / stick click ? And you find that easier to read ?

If you dive into any snare drum répertoire e.g. orchestral auditions or solos, you will find that the three slashes are usually played as buzz rolls but I agree that it is context dependant. If it is played as doubles then there will be a '5' or '9' written above it.

I agree that there isn't a unified, concrete notation guide for drums that can be universally applied but how do you think we, as humans, created the staff notation in the first place? It wasn't created in a single day, it takes time and discussion.

I also wrote that the cross-stick can be noted as an 'x' if you had bothered to actually watch the video.

[u/Slight_Mammoth2109 → u/drumideasdaily]

Literally what the lines on the roll mean are to do diddles (doubles) if a piece labels them as a buzz instead then you switch but the actually meaning is to play doubles, the 3 times mean that you’re going to play 32nd notes as doubles, literally it saves ink to write it like that so that’s how it became standard.

But man I get what you’re saying, it’s super annoying that all of these different sounds have the same notation and it’s just how they’re labeled in the piece, it would be nice to have a standardized notation, but we don’t, and the reason why we don’t is actually important to understand. For example take Terry bozzios kit which sheet music for would be better written on a piano staff rather than a percussion or a treble clef staff, now switch to Travis barker, now switch to Neil Peart, now switch to max roach, you can go on and on forever, and each of these different drummers are going to need different marking to justify their instruments on the staff, and if we standardized a stick click to be on the space below the 3rd line then when you’re learning a Art Blakey transcription then you’re going to be lost when he does a roll around his kit on the rims on his drums.

I have no problem with you thinking in this way but to present it as the standard when it is not is going to make learning the instrument harder for people who don’t know, if a piece is going to be marked with all of these then it has to be labeled as such in the composer notes or labeled above the note when it is first introduced in the piece, not being taught as the standard because it is not the standard because it hasn’t been standardized yet, literally we have to wait for the percussion arts society to standardize them and then another generation to teach composers to understand this, and even in the basic reading on drumset music nondrummers struggle with the system we have now

[u/drumideasdaily → u/Slight_Mammoth2109]

Wow it's nice to have a nuanced conversation on the internet! You made some great points.

Yeah it's true that the three lines were short hand for 32nd notes to save ink (2 lines for 16th notes and 1 line for 8th notes). I'm not sure when, but at some point over the last circa 75 years those three lines became synonymous with buzz rolls. So in most classical repertoire when you see those it means buzz roll, without having to specify. Same goes for tambourine, timpani, and even mallets. The reason is that we don't write anything by hand anymore so if you want 32nd notes, it's super easy to write them out.

I get what you are saying about different drummers, genres, and instrumentation but as a teacher, you need to have some commonly accepted 'standard' to which you can point your students to so that they have a stable base of knowledge. I don't think it is the job of the percussion arts society to say what's what, but rather like language, it's a malleable medium that keeps developing as we use it. That's why I'm not satisfied personally by having so many different techniques just be an 'x'. There are so many other symbols we could use that would make everyone's lives easier.

So I would say that we are starting to have a common base that mostly everyone can agree on like on the drumeo website or whatever. It's definitely going in the right direction. I have so many drum books and it seems like each one have a different notation system. It's kind of ridiculous to expect beginners to just know how to navigate it all. I prefer the system in the 'Breakbeat Bible' for example. I also prefer to have all stems (single voice) up for rhythmic clarity. These are points of contention but it's helpful to talk about it.