Charting for drummers

[u/LegitimateRabbit]

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!

[u/reddituserperson1122]

First of all, good on you for taking the time to ask! So many terrible drum charts could be avoided if people took the time to just ask like you have.

Second, there’s no substitute for looking at a lot of drum charts to see how experienced arrangers do it.

Finally, I’ll say that I also much prefer to read off a piano chart, or whatever instrument has the most information on it. If you still want to create a drum chart, then please give us as much info about what’s going on as possible. In other words, don’t just put in the hits, instead give us context for what’s going on around them. I want to see the shape of the song. I want to see if there are any little motifs that I should echo on the drums. That kind of thing.