Celebrating 10 years of sharing drum scores with the world, I thought I’d make this Top 10 of my favourite drum scores that I’ve shared over the years. I’m sure some will find this list to be a little bit too much of ”pinapple in it’s own juice”-like and not very Jantelov-like (you can look up those frases if you care), however here’s a pick of my own top 10 favourites available on the website, in random order – check them out if you want.
2/4 Hornpipe Swallow Tailed Coat
This drum score was written more than 15 years ago for the gathering of a group of Danish and Swedish pipe band musicians, myself included, who played a few concerts in Scandinavia. The group began the journey of what would later be named Balagan. It was written for a concert repetoire and was meant to be fun and fairly easy to bash away. Since then a lot of drummers from our region has played this drum score for their Hornpipe Jig solos.
6/8’s Old Adam & Ms. Lily Christie
This is a set of 2 drum scores for some great 6/8. They were written for the Cross Borders Pipe Band back in 2019 – a tuning set for the band. The band was basically founded in my flat in Copenhagen where the PM Björn lived for 3 years during work time in Denmark, but officially registred in Spain where Björn moved after his time here. I’ve always loved to play 6/8’s and these tunes really underline how great those types of tunes are. I will never forget our march back from a tiny park in Bad Homburg, Germany, where we had our very first band rehersal. We walked/marched on the pedestrian street of this small town in civil dress and in great weather conditions, playing these tunes over and over, back to our facilities. What a joy!
2/4 March The 24th Guards Brigade at Anzio
In 2024 Björn Heuckeroth and I decided to go for another run of Cross Borders Pipe Band at The Worlds. For the MSR we made a change to this great march, and therefore I wrote a drum score for it. It turned out really nice, I think, and gives a good flow along with the piping tune. Apart from perhaps the endings of each part, it’s not a difficult score, even though it starts out with a tricky single run. The easiness of the drum score creates room for lot’s of dynamic, which is ultimately our part to deliver in the musical context of pipe band music. I had a fun time writing the drum score to fit a bunch of drummers from many places coming together very rarely and with a very short rehersal time together. It turned out to work very well in the end.
As for the reel of that same MSR for Cross Borders we decided to stick with this tune which we also played in our first season back in 2019. I really enjoy drumming to this tune, and this particular drum score has a good mix of on beat and off beat rhythms throughout. Actually Björn was the one who encouraged me to do that roll thing in the very last part. My own favourite part in this score is part 5 with all it’s impact in the first bars, aswell as the smooth rolling of bar 5 in that part. I had a drummer from North America reach out to me asking if they could play this in their MSR, and of course they could.
2/4 March 79th Farewell To Gibraltar
This drum score is the most downloaded shared score on the website. I guess it’s probably because the tune is very popular amongst a lot of pipe bands. I think the drum score is very fitting, and some parts of the drum score originates all the way back from when I wrote my very first drum score back in 1997-1998ish. The drum score was written for the experienced level or perhaps the experienced beginner level, so it’s playable by most pipe band drummers.
6/8 Jig Glasgow City Police Pipers
For a long time I’d been wanting to write drum score for this great jig, that I remember being played very early on in my pipe band journey. So finally, a band I was with, wanted to play this, and I gave it a shot. This drum score is fairly easy to drum away and leaves lots of room for dynamics. I’ve used it a few times for rehersals and at parties, because I find it comfortable to play even after a long day of teaching or judging. It’s also an easy adjustable drum score that can be modified to fit whatever fancy version of this tune a piper would choose to play.
I wrote this drum score back in 2005 for a local band in Denmark – Copenhagen Caledonia Pipe Band. The beginning of this fanfare sounds a lot like the rhythmic pattern from ”I don’t care anymore” by Phil Collins. And I’m sure it must have entered my head because of me listening a lot to his music growing up. There’s also a small part of a back sticking movement that is widely known and must have originated all the way back from the introduction of swiss rudimental drumming (with open double strokes) into Scottish pipe band drumming. The ending of the fanfare sort of ties the knot with a different take of the theme with stick clicking and then going back to the opening of the fanfare. I’m proud to note that this fanfare has been taught at the famous Canadian summer school of piping & drumming – Piping Hot Summer Drummer. Overall; it’s a good mix of a lot of different rudiments, it leaves room for lots of dynamics, and it’s relatively easy to play well.
This drum score was written back in 2015, I believe, for one of my classes at the German summer school of piping & drumming at Breuberg, near Frankfurt. My student in the class had heard the tune being played by Balagan and wanted to play along to that tune, so I wrote a drum score suitable for their level. It’s written for drummers at the experienced level and could serve as an introduction to playing hornpipes/reels. I guess it’s probably one of these types of tunes that are quite challenging for pipers, however playable for drummers if the drum score is fitted for the level of the drummers. It turned out nicely, and everybody in the class seemed to enjoy this drum score.
In 2016 I was again teaching at Breuberg, and in preparation to coming to Germany I was in correspondance with Michael Grey who would be teaching piping, to find out wether we should have some of our classes play something together. We ended up playing a few of his tunes, and I wrote some drum scores for them. This march, Vimy Ridge Academy, is different and very uplifting. The time signature 7/4 makes this march feel more big and majestic. I remember it took a little while for the expression of the ensemble to settle in, but once it did, it all came together quite well.
4/4 March Bob Cooper Of Winnipeg
The last drum score on this TOP 10 list was written in 2023 for a tune that was composed by Bob Worrall for the memory of Bob Cooper of Winnipeg, a pipe band drummer from Canada. I had been contacted by a member of The Wallace Pipes & Drums from Malta who was curious to know wether I could write something for this tune that would fit their level. And so I did. They were pleased with the result, and so was I. Since then, I’ve been drumming up this drum score with other bands as well. I also sent a recording of the drum score to my good friend Blair Cooper, a former piper with the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band and the son of Bob Cooper, whom I play chess with regularly during the cold and dark season of the year. He was happy to hear the drum score, and also passed it forward to his mom, who liked it as well.