How to Write a Simple Drum Chart in 4 Minutes 

It's cool that you color-code too. I just use red, yellow, green, and they symbolize the same things as street lights. Red means a cut, green usually means a crescendo or to kick back in, and yellow is where there is a change in the music or leading to a cut. I had to do a ton of songs for a musical and learn them in 3 weeks. Seeing the colors and notating was a lifesaver.

I have been preparing for gigs with a spreadsheet, and it works well. Best when I have the set list ahead of time. I put the songs in order, with colums for Start, End, Tempo, and a Notes field. Figuring out the BPM in advance helps me see at a glance how fast the song is in context to the others. This helps make sure I start and end songs properly, and the notes field is just for important things to remember. This is not the same as a chart, but way better than just a set list and memory.

I like the idea of getting a bar count on the first pass. That way you can confidently transition into each section.

Nice! I learned something useful here and will consider implementing the color coding. I like what you said about not wanting to read the chart when performing live. Even Kenny Aronoff was criticized by a famous singer for reading his charts during the gig. We want to use it as a guide but not depend on every note when we play.

Awesome , I do this too the only thing I add is I like the have a lyric sheet or even better a chord chart and write on the side of that so I can follow the lyric, chord changes instead of counting the measures. I don't need all the lyrics just the first page which details the verse, bridge, chorus vocal / chord patterns. I plan to do a few this week end for a gig ill try to remember to scan them in and give a link when i'm done.

I've learned a lot from your channel. Much more in magnitude that this next comment. Would you consider doing an updated video on this topic please? This is too advanced for me. This and the other older videos on this topic are a lot of talk and very little demonstration. An improved balance of talk and demonstration might be more effective.

Awesome method!

Thanks for the tip!! I'll have to try it.

Dang, I'm a simpleton. I just got myself some Crayola colored, erasable pencils. I'm thinking about using them to indicate dynamics. Red: Soft Yellow: Raise the volume a bit - proceed with Caution. Green: Full Out / Climax of the song, etc. Great video!

I do similar but it can get out of hand quickly for complicated songs, lol. Good point to only note what you'll likely forget.

Thank you for sharing your method!

nice! now I have a idea so I won't forget my project tune to my band

I just did brief chart on lyric sheets I printed out. It did help out.

Pretty much the way I do them .. gonna try color coding .😎

Thank you so much. Very helpful. I do the exact same thing with the colors. It seems to me synesthesia among drummers is common? Anyone else here a drummer and a synesthete?

What I use Ride Cymbal = Orange Crash = Red Hi Hat = Yellow China = Purple Toms = Green

that's interesting, usually, when I'm asked to play drums, I learn the songs from start to finish. I made some kind of chart once when I was asked to help someone out on the day of the gig itself, all I wrote down were the start, the rythms used, the breaks and the end

Hmm, I think I would find having to read anything while playing a total distraction, but I guess that needs practice too. (I''m not a gigging drummer though, and reading music must be an essential skill of the trade, I'm sure). However a great piece of advice I was given when i was playing in bands was to ONLY practice the bits and pieces I did not know (aka, don't start the song again from the top, just focus on whatever's causing trouble). This turned out to be gold, since band practice would not take forever and we wouldn't get frustrated or just plain tired. But then again, with certain songs you just have to make (mental) notes to keep things running smoothly. And that's the way it is, I'm pretty sure even for the drummers who wrote the pesky sections. A good example of a song I was trying to learn recently and didn't get a feel for was Royal Blood's - "Lights Out". Towards the end of the song there's this silly drum solo break which is hard to count in normal measures. So whenever I'm messing around with that song I have this mental note that goes - here comes the drum breakdown, start counting along with the beats and there's ten of them! And it works! I also noticed that at least some of those mental notes stay with you even when you're listening to the song years after you've played them last, like - oh damn, when the guitar solo is on it's third measure start adding in the ghost notes and don't get thrown off beat by the piano! However, thinking about this, I've noticed that most notes that I've ever had to make were on special situation counting rather than any other aspect of the music. No other mistake seems to be as grievous as failure to predict/remember a major change in the beat or a stop. I don't have colors and sounds synesthesia but I do have this thing with cymbal sounds I hate; they almost seem to put this sour taste in my mouth and make me really angry, like when someone keeps being pesky, say, like when someone nail scratches a blackboard. Luckily I haven't had this experience with many cymbals, in fact I'm very tolerant of most, even very harsh ones I don't mind. However there's this one cymbal line from Meinl, they're half lathed, actually good looking cymbal, the dual crashes they've called them, but when I hear them, whether it be a recording but especially in the room, they raise the hairs on my back. It's so bad and intense that I feel like if I don't leave the room immediately I might have to engage in violence. It''s a less intense type of revulsion that I get by hearing these cymbals on recordings, but still there's something in their specific blend of tone that just drives me to anger. Weirdly enough, I've listened to the same line of hi-hats and I gotta say, while I don't find them exceptional, they also don't bother me. Another thing I had to get a grip on was when I would be playing a heavy beat, as in a very square, very downbeat-y steady beat with very square changes in the rhythm, especially in rock music but also with some pop music; the heavier the beat felt the harder I would grip the sticks and get tense. I basically had to realize that the feel of the beat was not influenced by me getting tensed up, quite on the contrary, the beat would feel even meaner when played relaxed. Anyways, sorry for the mile long comment, but that's my 2 cents on taking notes and drum feel .I gotta say, I like that trolley case, looks like you've used it to smuggle contraband! I like old battered cases, nobody seems to want to get near them, which can be useful. Actually, now that I think about it, nobody seems to want to go near drum cases anyway, especially when you need to move your drums! Oh, and one last thing, it would be something very different hearing your low volume kit used along with music, so consider doing the odd cover ever so often! And keep the videos coming!

Funny, it looks a bit like how I do it. Thing is, when I'm rocking out I tend to lose track of where I am and trying to find it again makes the letters dance.... Guess it's my ADD....LOL!

uh, oddly enough, I am sitting in Denton while watching this.

When I'm covering a song I like to watch a drum chart video on RU-vid. Sodamlazy (ru-vid.com/show-UCK7zmooWgENeCFercRJT51A) is a channel that makes these guitarhero-like flowing charts for drums and they make it really easy to memorize grooves and patterns especially if you are a visual learner like me. The program he uses to make them is Phase Shift which you can download for free and it's fairly easy to learn to use. Ofc, this is useful for learning songs, not really for reminding yourself when you're at the gig.

I honestly just try to memorize the song rather than write it out.