I’ve always wanted to write for drums. Unfortunately there never seems to be the time (rightly or probably wrongly) to learn how to do it correctly. What usually happens is when I get to rehearsal I say to the drummer I want this kind of groove (no paper) and then I hope they remember all the stops, pauses etc by writing them down the way they understand it. I’m not the only one of course who does this and a lot of the time drummers actually quite like this technique as it free them up to put their own take on it.
A big problem with this way though as it makes your score quite difficult to pass on to any other ensemble without the drummer taking the time to listen to an audio file (if there is one). We all want other people to play our music so this is something we have to think about.
On September 16th we are hosting our first Distil Scratch Band and we are asking musicians to write for drums using Dave Milligan’s drum writing tutorial. It’s actually not too difficult when you see how it works. It’s not too dissimilar to the musical stave – instead of notes you have drum types.
Anyway we would love you to have a go! Our scratch band is open to anybody. All you have to fill in our Scratch Band form and send us your idea! We look forward to hearing from you. Any questions please contact us.