This weeks drum score was written back in 2010 – and inspired by all of the different impression I’d gotten from playing in various bands and listening to so many great bands. It was written as a warm up drum score for the Balagan drum corp. This score could also be played by the experienced drummer in a solo competition, as for example Copenhagen Winter Competition which is now up and running again. In Balagan we ended up playing it to the piping tune Continue reading
Due to my absence last week, there will be two scores of this week. This first drum score of the week was written back around 15 year ago for a Scandinavian combined group of different bands. The bands were too small a group to compete on their own, so they gathered up and competed together as The Scandinavian Mayflies. This score was written to be their strathspey in their MSR, and also to be an easy drum score to memorize. As you can see in the drum score there’s quite Continue reading
The theme of Octobers “Score of the week” will be 4 parted tunes for the experienced drummer.
This drum score was written just days ago for an MSR for a Danish grade 4 band, where the drummers needed a good challenge. I think this particular tune was a bit hard to write a score to, because of the many tachums in there. However, I wrote it, and here’s the end result. For the endings I decided to break up the last Continue reading
Since I failed to upload a drum score last week – I’ll be sharing two drum scores this week.
This last drum score of July (yes, I know it’s now August), is following the theme of July – 4 parted competition type drum scores – is a one of my first drum scores I wrote. It was written back in 1999 to play in a medley with Holbæk Pipe Band and is presented on the CD “Debut” of the same band. Since writing it I brought it to Piping Hot Summer Drummer as part of my drumming gear – scores, sticks, pads and all. I had the chance there to get some help, tips and inspiration from J. Reid Maxwell with the score about places in there, that I wasn’t really pleased with. It was a really great experience. Since then I’ve often used other drummers (and pipers) opinion about drum scores and ensemble when writing a drum score. Especially the 4th part was spiced up a bit from the original version in for example Continue reading
This weeks drum score was written back in 2011 for a Danish drummer to compete in the advanced HJ competition at Copenhagen Winter Competition. The score follows the structure of the tune – repeating the 3rd & 4th bar of the parts 1&3 and 2&4. For the ending I thought of a few different options but ended up with this rather fancy run of Continue reading
This 4 parted drum score for a traditional Irish tune was written back in 2007 for the Balagan concert band. We played it twice – second time through we added bass, guitar and drum kit. Since then this drum score has been played by a lot of drummers in Scandinavia for solo competitions. The drum score was written to fit the tune in a concert setting and not really as a competition type hornpipe as such. The written chips were meant Continue reading
This drum score was made for the Balagan concert band back in 2009. It was part of a hornpipe set that was played at a few concerts back in 2009 and 2010. The ending of each of the parts in the drum score can easily be adapted to something more suitable for your hands, without changing the overall sound of the ending too much, by for example Continue reading
A new month – a new theme. 4 parted drum scores suitable for solo competitions.
This first score of july was written in 2009 for the Balagan concerts. After a nice slow air, we played the jig twice – second time through we added guitar, bass and drum kit. A very nice opener to the concert. This drum score was written to fit the tune nicely, yet still provide the drive to the overall presentation of the pipe band. A good example of this is Continue reading
The last advanced jig drum score this time around was written for a Danish solo drummer to compete at the Copenhagen Winter Competition. The score was written to give some challenge yet not be too difficult for a solo competition. The tune has a lot of long notes from beat to beat and can be hard to write to. I found that a good mix of Continue reading
A drum score written to finish off a medley – the ending is played on the recording, but not shown in the written drum score. I’ve written a few different scores for this classic jig tune, but this version is the most complicated/challenging of them. In the 3rd part we changed the 4th bar to a more fancy version in the piping Continue reading
A new month – and a new theme. Jigs at the advanced level. This shared score of the week was written back in 2007 for the first Balagan concert medley. In the medley we started off with a three parted hornpipe followed by a 2-parted jig. And then as we entered this jig, we had a two bar drumming break in the first two bars of the tune. I’m not sure wether the tenors actually did played something in the break. Anyway, the recording I’ve made to go along with the score, does not include the break. For me, the highlight of the Continue reading
This weeks score of the week was played with another tune by Iain Currie – former PM of The Heather Pipes & Drums of Copenhagen. The tune Iain wrote is called Bendix A. Steckmetz – named after a Danish piper currently playing with Balagan.
This 4 parted hornpipe was played as the opener of our concerts with Balagan back in 2008. Continue reading