A tool for sight-reading?

[jotadrums]

Hi!!!

I wonder if is there available a tool for sight reading practice on the drums as there is in sightreadingfactory.com for other instruments. I play bass as well and am used to practice sightreading for the bass with it. But regarding percussion...only snare drum is available.

I would llike to find a tool that allows me to practice on the fly sightreading chops (randomly generated exercises for ride, hi-hat, bassdrum and snare at least) for swing or any other type of rythm pattern; and would be nice if it works on an android tablet or an ipad, as sightreadingfactory does.

Any idea?

 

[MrInsanePolack]

We read from the staff just like everyone else, only our notation is drums/cymbals, not notes.



Our rudimental notation is slightly different also. For example, a seven stroke roll doesn't display as seven strokes, rather two with the number 7 above it:



I dont know of a tool to help you read. There are tons of charts available with whole songs available.

 

[toddbishop]

Reading for drumset virtually always involves some interpretation-- sightreading fully written out drum set parts isn't really a normal thing. But there are books of written out drum set "pieces" you can get-- look around at Steve Weiss.

 

[jotadrums]

We read from the staff just like everyone else, only our notation is drums/cymbals, not notes.

View attachment 94459

Our rudimental notation is slightly different also. For example, a seven stroke roll doesn't display as seven strokes, rather two with the number 7 above it:

View attachment 94460

I dont know of a tool to help you read. There are tons of charts available with whole songs available.

Thanks for your reply!!! I immensenly appreciate your answer. But I have been reading drum charts for the last 25 years, so I know (just about), where a cow-bell, a floor tom, a cup for ride cym or an open hi-hat are written.

My query is (again): is there an automatic tool that BOOMS in front of you 24 swing (or whatever) bar sheet one after another, all with bd, sd, ride, hi-hat and the like? Just to build chops on hard-professional big-band sight-reading situation.

Just as sightreadingfactory does for the bass, piano or guitar.

Regards!!!

 

[toddbishop]

None that I'm aware of, never seen a professional chart written like that. Try this instead. Houghton's Studio and Big Band Drumming book also gives instructions for how to interpret a standard professional chart.

 

[jotadrums]

None that I'm aware of, never seen a professional chart written like that. Try this instead. Houghton's Studio and Big Band Drumming book also gives instructions for how to interpret a standard professional chart.

Lots of thanks for your suggestions, toddbishop.

 

[johnwesley]

When I was playing orchestra, the only sight reading tool we had was our eyes. Some had to wear glasses. Are you blind?

 

[adamosmianski]

Another vote for "The Ultimate Drumset Reading Anthology". That covers a lot of stuff, written in many common ways.

Also consider checking out the Musescore website. People share charts on their all the time. You might find some nice stuff that you could download and play along to.

 

[iCe]

My query is (again): is there an automatic tool that BOOMS in front of you 24 swing (or whatever) bar sheet one after another, all with bd, sd, ride, hi-hat and the like? Just to build chops on hard-professional big-band sight-reading situation.

Can't remember ever have seen that, but i know that Jordan Rudess (keyboard player from Dream Theater) has this iPad thingy on which he has sheet music with notes etc. mounted above his master keyboard. He uses a Roland midi foot controller to switch the pages or he can do that by tapping the screen, but has to do it manually. Being that we drummers use all our limbs and like 90% of the time at the same time as well, this can be a little tricky.

I know that Bobby Jarzombek (great drummer, is on this site as well) writes out entire songs on paper and when he needs to rehearse or recording, he takes out the sheets and puts them on a stand next to each other.

 

[Morrisman]

Noteflight has sheet music you can sing or play along with, then it draws a graph of your playing to show how accurate you were. I don’t know if there’s a percussion section though.

 

[jotadrums]

When I was playing orchestra, the only sight reading tool we had was our eyes. Some had to wear glasses. Are you blind?

 

[jotadrums]

Noteflight has sheet music you can sing or play along with, then it draws a graph of your playing to show how accurate you were. I don’t know if there’s a percussion section though.

Noteflight looks good. But as far as I know, it does not generate on-the-fly random groove scores with (let's say) bass drum, snare, ride cym and hi-hat in order to make you constantly groove-sight-read, which is what SightReadingFactory does for almost every other instrument.

In a hypothetic situation, you would enter elements of the kit, time measure, number of bars, swing or straight, with or without dynamics, and tempo. Press 'generate' and there you are. Just like Sightreading Factory. Pity is that it does not include a drum kit.

A tool that generates random groove sheets for bass drum, snare and hi-hat or ride (for instance) would be nice. If only I had strong programming skills, I myself would write it!!!

 

[jotadrums]

Another vote for "The Ultimate Drumset Reading Anthology". That covers a lot of stuff, written in many common ways.

Also consider checking out the Musescore website. People share charts on their all the time. You might find some nice stuff that you could download and play along to.

I already use musescore for bass and drums sheets, been using it for years, it's a monster of a program, and open source. In fact it is my main tool for print and lay-out my drums as well as my bass lines. But does not include an instant random sheet generator, just as SightReading Factory does .

 

[Swissward Flamtacles]

I don't know about such a tool but I doubt it would be all that useful. A friend always got the drum tabs from his guitarists who wrote songs in Guitar Pro. These were pretty random and nearly impossible to play because a guitarist (or an algorithm) won't think about how quickly you can get from one tom to the bell or another tom. Completely random grooves would probably not sound that great most of the times. The vocabulary that is expected by the other musicians is not random.
Do you know the Alan Dawson interpretations for Syncopation or the New Breed? Todd has posted a ton of ways to interpret rhythms in different styles and that's more useful to me than sight-reading complete charts where everything is written out. Unless you audition for Zappa, it's unlikely that you have to play 10 pages of grooves and fills note for note.

 

[jotadrums]

I don't know about such a tool[...]

---Awesome post...!! Leads to an interesting web: "cruiseshipdrummer.com". Lots of sight reading resources there....Thanks a lot!!!!

 

[brentcn]

Check out the Chart Reading Workbook for Drummers by Bobby Gabriele. It's big band oriented and has charts and play alongs for about 9 songs, in increasing difficulty, plus tracks to work on the exercises and such.

 

[rhumbagirl]

Check out the Chart Reading Workbook for Drummers by Bobby Gabriele. It's big band oriented and has charts and play alongs for about 9 songs, in increasing difficulty, plus tracks to work on the exercises and such.

I have this and recommend it as well. Although I don't know if it helps for non-jazz styles. I mean reading is reading. I've found even if I'm not playing, if I'm following along with a guitar or piano part, while listening to the mp3, it sharpens the "road map" skills. I've also been having success using my Apple Pencil and iPad to markup chart pdfs, then email them to myself to transfer to my iMac, where I can print them for a gig or rehearsal.

 

[Hollywood Jim]

Here is something interesting that a drum teacher friend came up with to assist in teaching a new drummer how to read drum set music notation.

 

[rhumbagirl]

Other ways I think I've bettered myself in the reading department:

- Practicing from drum books, whether it's rudiments, or styles
- Transcribing parts using my Apple Pencil and iPad (the Notes app) - even in dark mode, when I go to share the note by email, iOS already converts the note to black on white just in case I want to print it, which I do. There is Forscore, but unless you have a third foot for hitting the page flipper - a device sold separately - you're kinda screwed. There's supposed to be a way to synchronize several iPads side by side for multi-page charts, but that's $$$. I suppose I'm waiting for the roll-up wide-screen monitor in a few years from now (we have the bendable smartphone screens already, so).

 

[brentcn]

Other ways I think I've bettered myself in the reading department:

- Practicing from drum books, whether it's rudiments, or styles
- Transcribing parts using my Apple Pencil and iPad (the Notes app) - even in dark mode, when I go to share the note by email, iOS already converts the note to black on white just in case I want to print it, which I do. There is Forscore, but unless you have a third foot for hitting the page flipper - a device sold separately - you're kinda screwed. There's supposed to be a way to synchronize several iPads side by side for multi-page charts, but that's $$$. I suppose I'm waiting for the roll-up wide-screen monitor in a few years from now (we have the bendable smartphone screens already, so).

I used to set up a spd x to flip pages forward and back, using a usb/MIDI adapter and some freeware to convert the MIDI notes to keystrokes.

 

[rhumbagirl]

I used to set up a spd x to flip pages forward and back, using a usb/MIDI adapter and some freeware to convert the MIDI notes to keystrokes.

Please post here that adapter if and when you get the chance, thanks!

EDIT: You're still sacrificing your playing - even if it's one eighth note - to change a page. Somehow I don't think the save-the-planet gods are going to blame the musicians of the world for using a few trees to bring music to the masses.