Create LilyPond sheet music for drum permutations.
usage: drumutation [-h] [--key] [--nsub NSUB] [--nbeat NBEAT] [--nbar NBAR] [-s STICKS] [drums [drums ...]]
Create LilyPond sheet music for drum permutations.
positional arguments:
drums drum elements to permute
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--key drum notation key
--nsub NSUB number of subdivisions
--nbeat NBEAT number of beats
--nbar NBAR number of bars (measures)
-s STICKS, --sticking STICKS
drum sticking elements to permute
The first few pages (5-7) of George Lawrence Stone's Stick Control: For the Snare Drummer are permutations of two bar, right (R) and left (L) hand sticking patterns over 16th notes.
These exercises can be generated using the following command.
$ drumutation --nsub 4 --nbeat 2 --sticking RL sn sn > stick-control.ly
--nsub 4
: The subdivision of each beat (pulse) is 4, i.e., 16th notes--nbeat 2
: Find all two beat permutations (eight 16th notes)--sticking RL sn sn
: Permute the snare (sn) with R and L hand sticking combinations
There are 256 possible two bar patterns. Drumutation outputs LilyPond sheet music that can be rendered using
$ lilypond stick-control.ly
The output is the seven page PDF stick-control.pdf.
- Only the 4/4 time signature is currently implemented.
The following drum elements can be permuted. The syntax mostly follows LilyPond's percussion notation.
Symbol | Description |
---|---|
sn | Snare |
sa | Snare Accent |
sg | Snare Ghost Note |
ss | Snare Side Stick (Cross Stick) |
hh | Hi-Hat |
hhc | Hi-Hat Closed |
hho | Hi-Hat Open |
hhho | Hi-Hat Half-Open |
cymr | Ride Cymbal |
rb | Ride Bell |
bd | Bass Drum |
bd2 | Bass Drum 2 |
hhp | Hi-Hat Pedal (chick) |
hhs | Hi-Hat Splash |
t1 | Rack Tom |
t2 | Floor Tom |
t3 | High Rack Tom |
t4 | Low Rack Tom |
t5 | Floor Tom |
cymc | Crash Cymbal |
cyms | Splash Cymbal |
cymch | China Cymbal |
cb | Cowbell |
A four piece drum kit is usually notated using t1
and t2
, and a
five piece kit with t3
, t4
, and t5
.