This drum score was written for a medley back a little more than a year ago for a grade 4B band. Here are the instructions I sent them along with the scores.
Make sure, that you can Continue reading
Category Archives: Score of the week
Fleshmarket Close
This drum score was written a little more than a year ago for a grade 4B band. This is the intro to their medley – quite a challenge I would say. Here (underneath) are the instructions I sent them along with the drum score.
Keep all the background strokes
Paddy Be Easy
This drum score is an updated and extended version of an older drum score I wrote for this tune back in 2014. This time it’s for 4 parts, as well as a reprise of the 1st part. It was meant to fit a small drum corp of adult learners who’s looking for a simple yet interesting score for this slip jig. I added in a break in the 3rd part to create some dynamics in the overall presentation. In the repeat of the part, there’s an option Continue reading
Lisa Dubh Lisa Báhn
This drum score was also for a tune composed by Michael Grey. It’s named after two german pipers both of the name Lisa. One with dark hair and one with blonde hair.
The level of the drum score for this hornpipe was meant to fit the level of experienced drummers and includes a lot of basic pipe band drumming rudiments, such as Continue reading
Conrads Hat
This drum score was written for a tune composed by Michael Grey called Conrads Hat. It’s named after the hat of a german piper. The tune has a very distinct ending frase which is also noticed in the drum score.
The level of the drum score is meant to fit intermediate level drummers with some knowledge of playing jigs yet it leaves a fed challenging bits such as Continue reading
The Cats Dance
This drum score was written for a jig called The Cats Dance.
It was written to the level of beginner drummers who had not yet had experience with playing jigs. The rudiments used in the drum score are fairly simple and should give lots of Continue reading
High Road To Gairloch
This drum score was written for a Danish drum corp earlier in the year for the 2/4 march High Road To Gairloch. It was meant to fill out a spot in a competition march set for beginner drummers. The level was made to beginner to allow every drummer in the corp to play along. To me the key of the tune is the ending of each part – therefore I wrote the drum score to follow this part of the tune very closely. The most challenging part of the drum score is probably Continue reading
Lochanside
This drum score for Lochanside was written a few weeks back for a Danish grade 4 band. It builds on the more complicated drum score that I wrote for this tune a while back (also to be found on this site). This drum score is simplified to rolls, triplets and flams.
It seems to me that this is first non standard drum score that this specific band or drum corp has played. That’s why the level was adjusted to fit that aspect. Especially given the fact of the level being rather simple, it’s even more important to express the dynamics very clearly throughout. For example in the Continue reading
3/4 Adaptables
This drum score was put together for a Danish grade 4 band for them to play along with different 3/4 march tunes. The level of the drum corp is very diverse – some experienced drummers, some beginner drummers and some scout/marching band drummers not used to playing triplet rolls.
Therefore, this set of adaptables contains a lot of triplet rolls and regular triplets, to allow the drummers not familiar with this Continue reading
Loudens Bonnie Woods & Braes
This drum score was written this past week for a pipe band in Holland. The PM of the band wrote me a note saying thanks for the drum scores on the site, and said that they had made use of some of the shared drum scores. At the same time he asked wether I had drum scores for a few tunes that they had been working on. I emailed him back that, as a thanks for the kind words, I would write them a drum score for one of the tunes. So, here we go.
The drum score is written for the beginner level however it does have some more challenging bits in there. For example the ending of the 1st lines of the parts could be played Continue reading
Oh Susanna
This drum score was written for an old traditional american folk song called Old Susanna. It was written to make it possible for beginner piper and drummers to play together at an early stage. Usually the tune would be played twice through with no repeats of each part.
The drum score follows the tune very closely (I hope you’ll be able to hear that and hum along) and is fairly easy, yet leaving a bit of space for some challenging parts, such as Continue reading
The Brown Haired Maid
This drum score was written for myself to compete at the Copenhagen Winter Competition back in March this year. A piper friend of mine really like this tune and encouraged me to write a drum score for it, and also encouraged me to go and compete. I had a lot of fun writing this drum score, and also playing it in competition. The long roll beginning the 6th part was suggested to me by a piper friend of mine, because Continue reading
Struan Robertson
This weeks drum score was written for an experienced drum corp to be played in an MSR. The drum score was written very recently and with the arranging of B&T’s in mind. Notice, when you play along, that it’s written like the piping music – with one line to be repeated in the 1st and in the 3rd part to two lines non-repeated in the 2nd and in the 4th part. To me the highlight of the tune and the drum score is the first bar of the 4th part, because Continue reading
Paddy Be Easy
This drum score was written a few years back for a grade 4 band. It was written to be part of a concert set which would allow all the drummers to play along. The level of the drum score is therefore set to beginner level and is relatively easy to execute. It’s also my experience that the piping tune is fairly easy to execute for the pipers, which makes this tune and also the drum score a good choice for any band at any level. Notice, this drum score is only made for two parts. A way of arranging this tune, in a medley for example, could be to Continue reading
Iain MacDonald
This weeks shared drum score was written in 2015 for the introduction of the medley of Balagan to compete at the World Championships. It’s made by myself and the LD Louise O. Lindhardtsen some late night after a band weekend rehersal with the band. I really like this tune and the drum score as well. It has a really nice swing to it and at the same time comes across as something very traditional. As we wrote the drum score, the PM of the band gave us some ideas for breaks and accentuations throughout the drum score. I really enjoy the lift of the endings as well – although a little bit tough to execute – if played nicely, I find that the Continue reading
CCPB Fanfare
This drum fanfare was put together for the Copenhagen Caledonia Pipe Band back in 2005. The intention of the difficulty level was that everyone could join in and play it – experienced as well as beginner drummers. The level the drum score can easily be adjusted as well, to the level of the drummers. The fanfare is inspired by so many different drummers and artists – I will explain underneath whom are when in the fanfare. In the afterthought, it’s been easy for me pick-up where I must have gotten the inspiration for the theme piece that begins the fanfare as well as ends it. The pattern of the beat is heavily inspired and sounds a lot like the drum introduction of the Continue reading
Lucy Cassidy
This drum score for the tune Lucy Cassidy, was written a few years back for myself to play at a solo competition in Luzern in Switzerland. A piper friend of mine was going to Switzerland visit a common friend of ours and asked if I wanted to come along, and also play a competition there. I accepted and had to come up with an idea for a hornpipe. So, I came up with this. I wanted the first couple of bars to be very much in sync with the tune, therefore it’s very much on the beat in the first part. The endings can be a little risky because of the Continue reading
Sweet Maid of Glendaruel
This drum score is another one for the tune Sweet Maid of Glendaruel and was written a few years back for a grade 4B to compete at the World Pipe Band Championships. This one is written directly to fit the tune all the way through, but it’s also a bit more daring in the sense of being a little jazzy on the endings. In the first line of the drum score, it’s very much following the beat of the tune – suitable for marching in. Again – like in the other shared drum score for this tune – there’s loads of space to Continue reading
Sweet Maid of Glendaruel
This drum score of the week was written for a Danish grade 4 band to be a drum score for everyone to be able to play. It’s based around a standard 2/4 drum setting with 3rd&4th bar and the ending being repeated throughout. Therefore it was evident that the remaining bars would follow the tune very closely to create good ensemble. The important issue when playing this drum score is to be able to express the Continue reading
Vimy Ridge Academy
This drum score was written last week in preparation for teaching at a summer school. The tune is written by Michael Grey and is a strong march written in 7/4. The idea of the drum score was to underline the tune with a strong beat1 of each bar and at the same time have enough variations to make it exciting for the players and for the listeners to play and listen to. The dynamics in the drum score is mainly made from Continue reading