WORK IN PROGRESS

Do not use for serious work yet. Some notation symbols may still change. Not all sounds are already available.

Drums + Percussion

This instrument class represents individual drums played with hands or sticks, as typically found in a drum ensemble – e.g. congas, atabaques, tambores de candombe, various types of African ngoma – , plus small percussion like bells and shakers.

It is not meant for drum kits or multi-sound drums with advanced finger technique, like Tabla or frame drums. Furthermore, a transcription part can (currently) only refer to a single drum, so for one player playing multiple drums the multiple parts must be used.

Concept and Limitations

The sonic possibilities of the drum go far beyond what any type of notation can capture. This drum notation is intended to cover the most common standard tones effectively and pragmatically, especially those typically played in quick succession.

Some guiding ideas were:

Sound nuances and special effects beyond the basics can be (often better) annotated using details and free-form rows in the transcriptions, rather than with even more symbols.

Caveats
When creating transcriptions, don't be tempted to make changes based on how they sound when played back. Stick to tones and velocities as you play them. The same goes for learning, try to match what is written, not what you hear.

The capabilities of the playback engine only go so far. It is meant as an aid for learning and proof-listening, not to produce faithful reproductions. Also the sampled sounds may be altered or exchanged at any point.

Many essential aspects, such as groove, micro timing, and nuanced expression, are missing. Ideally, transcriptions should always be accompanied by audio recordings of a human player.

Notation basics

Example: Velocities and two-hand combinations

The part above has two rows for the right and left hand (R and L). The first six pulses are open tones o O O! in three velocities (soft, normal, accent), which are available for all sounds.

Next comes a slap flam, notated as simultaneous accented slaps of both hands S! S! – which strictly speaking is incorrect because the hands hit with a small delay. However, simultaneous identical strokes make little sense, so they are pragmatically used to denote flams.

Finally, there is a combination O pu where the right hand plays four open tones, and the other elbow pushes on the skin. pu is a modifier symbol, producing no own sound.

How and how hard the skin is pushed goes beyond the notation, so there is an annotation on the first modifier clarifying that it is done with the elbow pushing harder on each strokes. (One could even go further and e.g. describe a melodic contour using numbers in a free-form row which is ignored by the playback engine).

You can put any combination of sounds for the two hands in the same column, but only certain pairings are turned into combination tones. Otherwise the two sounds will just play simultaneously, regardless whether it is actually possible on the drum.

Stick tones and muffling
Symbols for stick tones are preceded by a dash, e.g. an open stick tone -O.
Example: A hand and stick pattern
However, a single dash - is a modifier indicating the palm resting on the skin. A double dash -- is the stick equivalent, indicating a stick resting on the skin to muffle it.

In the above example, p indicates the palm being put on the skin, and - that it remains there during subsequent pulses. Both equally muffle the skin and change the sound of the stick strokes. (t is a soft tap with the finger tips.)

Notations

Currently there are three notations, that are essentially the same. They are called RL and LR only differ in the order of rows. RL has the right hand on top. In order to align a part with your hands, you would turn the table 90° clockwise and read it from top.

LR has the left hand on top, so you would turn it counterclockwise and read it from bottom to top, which some people may prefer. You can translate pieces between both.

Click on the tabs below for a description of each notation:

Single hand strokes
All regular strokes come in the three velocities soft (lower case letters), normal (capitals), accent (capitals with exclamation mark).
Basic strokes
o
O
O!		 Open Tone
s
S
S!		 (Closed) slap
os
OS
OS!		 Open slap
b
B
B!		 Bass sound in the center of the skin
Additional hand strokes
p
P
P!		 Palm put on the skin to mute it. p should be [near] silent, and is both a stroke type and a modifier.
m
M
M!		 Muffled tone, hand dampening skin after stroke
e
E
E!		 Open tone at the edge of the skin, producing more overtones
sb
SB
SB!		 Slap bass
Finger strokes
h
H
H!		 Heel for floating hands
t
T
T!		 Tip / tap / toe / fingers for floating hands (t = ghost note)
io
IO
IO!		 Open Tone with index finger (should be a thin high pitched tone)
is
IS
IS!		 Index finger slap
Special effects
f
F
F!		 Fist hitting the center of the skin
k
K
K!		 Knocking with the knuckles
n
N
N!		 Hitting the skin with the finger nails
g
G
G!		 Glissando: Open tone + finger slide to keep the skin vibrating
w
W
W!		 Wipe on the skin (w finger, W palm, W! nails)
Stick strokes
Stick symbols are preceded by a dash.
-o
-O
-O!		 Open tone with stick
-e
-E
-E!		 Open tone with stick near the edge of the skin, producing more overtones
-m
-M
-M!		 Muffled tone, stick remains on skin
-rs
-RS
-RS!		 Rim shot
-r
-R
-R!		 Rim stroke with the stick
-s
-S
-S!		 Shell stroke with the stick
Multiple stick strokes
Because the playback engine currently uses static samples, multiple strokes will not adjust to the tempo. This may sound confusing if the tempo is fast or low.
-o2
-O2
-O2!		 Open tone double stick stroke; "drag" (within one pulse)
-o3
-O3
-O3!		 Open tone triple stick stroke (within one pulse)
-z
-Z
-Z!		 Buzz stroke (indefinite number of stick rebounds)
-zm
-ZM
-ZM!		 Short buzz stroke with extra force to muffle the skin
Modifiers
Modifiers do not produce a sound on their own. They modify the sound of the other hand.
p Palm put on the skin to mute it. p should be [near] silent, and is both a stroke type and a modifier.
- Palm put on skin, or resting there after previous stroke to muffle it (no sound), otherwise same as p
-- Stick put on skin, or resting there after previous stroke to muffle it (no sound)
pu Push skin with elbow or heel for pitch bend
ov Finger on the center of the skin to produce a harmonic tone
fa Forearm muting the skin
Combined strokes
Only combinations of the same velocity are recognized as combination strokes by the playback engine, e.g. o o and O O, but not o O.
Two hand strokes
o
O
O!		 o
O
O!		 Open tone flam
s
S
S!		 s
S
S!		 (Closed) slap flam
os
OS
OS!		 os
OS
OS!		 Open slap flam
b
B
B!		 o
O
O!		 Bass + open: Two sounds after another, shorter than flam
b
B
B!		 m
M
M!		 Bass + muffled: Two sounds after another, shorter than flam
s
S
S!		 p Muffled slap with other palm muffling the skin
s
S
S!		 - Muffled slap with other palm muffling the skin (same as s and p)
Special effect combinations
s
S
S!		 fa Muffled slap with other forearm muffling the skin
o
O
O!		 pu Open tone with other heel or elbow pushing the skin for pitch bend
o
O
O!		 ov Open tone with other finger in the center of the skin to produce harmonic tone
os
OS
OS!		 ov Open slap with other finger in the center of the skin to produce harmonic tone
Stick combinations
-o
-O
-O!		 o
O
O!		 Hand + stick open flam
-o
-O
-O!		 p Open stick tone with other palm muffling the skin
-o
-O
-O!		 - Open stick tone with other palm muffling the skin (same as -o and p)
-o
-O
-O!		 -o
-O
-O!		 Stick open flam
-rs
-RS
-RS!		 -- Rim shot with other stick muffling the skin

RL (internal) is not meant to be used directly. It is the same as RL, except that two-hand combinations are replaced by single symbols (which is required by the playback engine).