musescore-drum-chart

MuseScore drum chart

Goal: a short drum chart that reads like a road map. Each groove or phrase is written once with a play count, fills and stops are written out and colour-coded, nothing the drummer plays differently is lost, and bar numbers still match the song as played.

The user's rules

These come from the user's feedback on earlier charts. Follow them unless the user says otherwise for a chart.

• Never drop what the drummer plays differently. Bars may only be collapsed together when they are the same in kicks, snares, toms, hi-hat openings (open / half-open) and articulations. The only differences allowed are:
  • the cymbal on beat 1 (crash instead of closed hi-hat), shown with * / ** marks;
  • ghost notes, if the user agrees to drop them (see below).
• Use phrases, not just bars. When a groove alternates (e.g. an open hi-hat on the last eighth of every second bar, or an extra kick every other bar), collapse a 2-bar (or 4-bar) phrase × N instead of one bar × N. find_groove_sections computes these runs.
• Follow the song's phrasing. A repeated 2- or 4-bar phrase starts where a phrase starts: a crash bar, a section start, or the bar after a fill. "4 + 2 bars" reads better than "1 + 2-bar phrase ×2 + 1", even if it costs a bar or two on the page. find_groove_sections only proposes runs on that grid; don't build off-grid runs by hand.
• Compact as much as these rules allow, then offer near copies (bars that differ by a kick or similar) as a choice: merge them only if the user approves, and say what would be lost. An approved merge is collapse_to_repeat(..., force=True); list the dropped hits in the end notes.
• Keep fills, stops and builds written out. Bars in another meter (e.g. a 3/4 bar in a 4/4 song) are written out too, unless the same bar repeats: identical odd-meter bars collapse like any others ("pedal hi-hat bar ×2").
• End the chart on the last hit. Empty bars after it (rests of a fade or a segue into the next track, a zero-length bar left by an import) are removed with delete_measures, together with the section label on them. Don't put a cue text in their place unless the user asks.
• Ghost notes: ask per chart. List them with ghost_notes and ask whether to remove them (all, or some bars).
• Half-open hi-hats: imports usually don't mark them. Ask the user which sections or bars have a half-open hi-hat and add the symbol there.
• Cymbal rolls (a run of repeated or tied crash/ride notes, often with tremolo slashes): write them as one long note per bar, tied, with a roll (simplify_roll). A roll is one continuous roll from the first cymbal hit that rings (is tied) into it, not a held crash followed by a roll.
• Beam across rests. Write eighths as one beamed group per beat, with any rest inside the group under the beam (like the 2nd bar of a groove), never separate flags broken at each rest (beam_over_rests).
• Song structure page. Every chart ends with a structure page: song and artist, then section, bar count, groove, fills (set_song_structure). No notes column.
• Bar counts in fours, in the section labels. Each section label gets its length as drummers count it, in parentheses: "Chorus 4 (4+2)", black, in the label's own box (label_section_counts, which also sets the labels to 12 pt with 1 staff space around them, the look the user settled on). 6 bars → "4+2", 8 → "2x4", 10 → "2x4+2", 12 → "3x4", 7 → "4+3". A lead-in of 2 or more bars before the section's first groove bar is counted on its own (the intro's rest bar and pickup fill: "2+4+2"); a single bar is not ("2x4+2", not "1+2x4+1"). Bars in another time signature are counted on their own ("4+2+2": 4 bars, 2 bars of 3/4, 2 bars). A count-in bar excluded from the bar numbers is not counted. A count already written in a label is the user's: keep it (the tools do while it still adds up). The structure page shows the same counts in its Bars column, never plain numbers.
• No red counts beside the labels and no extra system spacing to make room for counts: MuseScore doesn't leave room between systems for text placed by hand, so they run into the dynamics of the system above. Only if the user explicitly asks for them (placement="beside").
• Header: title = song name, subtitle = artist, no composer (nothing top right), part name "Drums" top left.
• Bar numbers the user mentions are the numbers shown on the chart (as played). Convert them to positions before calling tools: get_score shows each bar as % m.N (bar M), where N is the position.