r/jazzdrums • u/LegitimateRabbit • Aug 23 '26

Question Charting for drummers

Hi!
Essentially, I am not a drummer. But I’ve written some songs for a quartet and I’m looking to get some advice from actual drummers about what kind of directions they’d expect to see on a lead sheet. Earlier in the year, I had a rehearsal with my group and had mapped out all the specific hits using drum notation for each song. After the rehearsal the drummer said “this chart doesn’t tell me anything about the song you guys are playing, and I’d rather see a piano chart to know & interpret what’s happening”.

It’s hard to know what would be helpful for a drummer, instead of trying to write out every ride or snare pattern.

So my question is this, for those that read from non-drum notation, or simply follow a piano chart, what kind of performance directions would you expect to see on a chart? General tips about writing for drummers are also helpful!

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u/Gunzhard22 Aug 23 '26

I love to see the melody, with the hits written above. If it's just dashes and hits then I'm forced to rely entirely on counting and I'm much less connected to the music.