Learn Songs Quickly and Efficiently Through Charting
For those of you who are working musicians out there, or even just involved with a few casual projects, you know that sometimes you have to learn songs on the fly. Sometimes you may have to learn a large set of material in only a day or two, or learn an entire song form and compose parts given only one or two listens (as is the case with a lot of session work.) This all requires you to develop some type of charting system to help you remember song forms, and figures/stops etc… When someone is paying you to do a session for them, they expect you to come into the studio, give them great tones that support their music, learn the material quickly, and give them quality parts that require as little editing as possible. Similarly, if someone is hiring you for a gig, they should be able to call you not long before the rehearsal (if there is one) get you the material, and be totally confident at rehearsal that you will know the material, and be able to get through the tunes in an efficient fashion.
Every drummer has their own way of charting songs, and learning them quickly. Mine is not too out of the ordinary as I simply count measures, but I do a couple of simple things to help myself out that you may be able to steal. My charting system requires me to quickly pick out the feel of the song, and identify where the backbeat should be. This helps me to count bars through the tune, and develop my grooves as I listen. One thing I learned quickly is to write really big whenever I’m charting. I figured this out after squinting my way through several gigs. This helps me to clearly read the number of bars in a section to minimize the thinking process, and focus on the playing. It also helps me to read my charts in the dark as venues are usually fairly dimly lit. (You can also get a music stand light for this.) Another important thing is to write clearly. My handwriting is simply not good, so I have to keep in mind that I will be reading my own writing while I play.
Now we’ve come to the point where the producer or engineer pushes play, and we have to start charting. The first thing I do (as I said before) is establish my counting system. The worst thing ever is to count or hear a song in a different way than they are, and then you have to amend your chart mentally as you go. The most important part of counting bars (for me at least) is being able to feel certain phrases/section lengths. Most song sections occur in 4, 8, 16, or 32 measure phrases, so you need to be able to feel this number of bars in your sleep. This allows you to focus more on parts and figures rather than form. You also need to be able to feel other numbers of bars/phrase lengths such as 9, 10, and 12 bar phrases. I’v come to learn that these are more common than I once thought, even in simple pop songs. As I count I write the number of measures in each section down an the left side of the page (as you can see in my chart below)
The next thing I do is differentiate between sections of the song (ie. verse, pre-chorus, chorus, intro, etc…) Most songs have a distinct verse and chorus so this usually isn’t too difficult. I write the section title next to the number of bars in that section. I also stagger the sections, and space common groups of sections apart in order to help me easily locate my spot on the chart with just a quick glance. I try to give my brain and eyes as little work to do as possible when reading down the page.
The last thing I do is make VERY simple notes next to sections, and only if I need to. These are mostly just to help me remember what instrument I’m gonna ride for each section (ie hi-hat, ride, floor tom, etc…) I even abbreviate this to make it easier to read. I will also sometimes notate stops if I can’t remember where they are. Take a look at my hand written chart below to see exactly what I mean by all of this.
Simple Chart for Song Form
Notice how this chart takes up almost an entire page of paper. You can also see what I meant when I talked about staggering groups of sections to keep my place on the chart.
I hope this information will help you learn songs faster and more efficiently. These methods, however simple, have been developed out of necessity and experience so take them and run with them!
