[DoNotPassGo]

Is there any general consensus on how to chart a Bo Diddley beat on drums?

 

(Warning, Great Wall o’ Text incoming. All questions marked in Bold)

 

As a general summation, Bo Diddley variations are 16th notes with accents based on a 3-2 clave rhythm. The drummer is using a standard Right and Left hand pattern, but using “louder” accents in certain locations. Written out, a common form of this sticking would be (with caps being accents):

 

R l r L r l R l r l R l R l r l

+ – – + – – + – – – + – + – – –

 

A main aspect of this rhythm is that it sounds* varied, but it’s usually played on just ONE tom. This is fine for true drums, but brings an interesting issue for Rock Band. If it’s one tom, is it charted on one color? This is how that previous rhythmwould be visually charted in REAPER (With the accented hits having a brown flag over them for reference):

 

 

[ Apologies to those who utterly detest* the blanket Pro markers. Many more coming ” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_happy.png” /> ]

 

 

If you are unfamiliar with this pattern and wanted a reference point, a good well-known variation of this can be found in Guns n’ Roses’ Welcome to the Jungle (time-stamped)

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg&t=3m24s

 

Below is the visual representation for how THAT would be accented:

 

 

 

That section (ignoring the cowbell fill) sounds like it could be played on 2 or even 3 toms. It’s just one floor tom, with the accents. I think* in the past, Harmonix has charted this issue out by charting the accents to a higher tom to differentiate the tone? I have one giant issue with this….. in most circumstances, that causes the player to lose the Right Left sticking which completely over-complicates the section and, also in most cases, will cause the downbeat to be sticked with the player’s off-hand (left hand for right handed people; which is an awkward occurrence). Below would be THAT charting for the Bo Diddley and WttJ:

 

Bo Diddley:

 

Welcome to the Jungle:

 

 

 

This is MY idea solution. I’m looking to confirm that this is acceptable for charting. I feel it might come off as “over-charting” to some, but it maintains all the big principals that I’m looking to keep:

1. Biggest concern: The Right-Left sticking is maintained
2. Accents are charted as separate notes (ie toms) to denote the player hearing a audibly different sound.
3. The direct hand movement for the player on the accents helps to visually seperate the notes for being different (same reason I hate charting drum rolls where there are accents)
4. The player’s off-hand is not used on downbeats

My solution is to chart the right hand accents on the Green, and the left hand accents on the Yellow. All non-accented notes remain on the Blue.

 

Below would be the Bo Diddley and WttJ using this charting scheme:

 

Bo Diddley:

 

Welcome to the Jungle:

 

 

In acceptance that nothing is perfect, I only have two concerns about this usage:

1. Sadly, the Green tom is being used to denote a “higher”/”louder” note than the Blue.
2. This only works assuming the pattern is played on one tom (Bow Wow Wow’s I Want Candy and U2’s Desire come to mind as being a Bo Diddley-type pattern across 2 toms with snare)

 

 

I know since office C3 stuff technically ended that this is mostly arbitrary and I can chart how I want, but I want to know if this is something that works for this pattern and wouldn’t be completely frowned upon. I also like to chart to the best of my ability at all times.

 

[spiralshadow123]

I like your solution to the problem. But if I were charting it, I’d probably do it all on one tom. I’ve always kind of accepted that dynamics aren’t a thing in Rock Band and that means a lot of drum parts have to be played differently than on a real drum set. One example I can think of is the RBN song “Dark Horse” by Converge, where the intro has 16th notes on the snare and 8th notes on the kick, with certain snare hits accented similarly to the patterns you mentioned. But in the game I have to play them just as straight 16th notes which takes out a lot of the fun. It sucks, but there’s not a whole lot you can do. The real question is what would FEEL more accurate, having everything on the same tom, or having the accents on different toms like the solution you posed? They’re both good options, so it comes down to personal preference. Also, when you chart the Hard difficulty, it would be a good idea to only put notes on the accents.

[DoNotPassGo]

I like your solution to the problem. But if I were charting it, I’d probably do it all on one tom. I’ve always kind of accepted that dynamics aren’t a thing in Rock Band and that means a lot of drum parts have to be played differently than on a real drum set. One example I can think of is the RBN song “Dark Horse” by Converge, where the intro has 16th notes on the snare and 8th notes on the kick, with certain snare hits accented similarly to the patterns you mentioned. But in the game I have to play them just as straight 16th notes which takes out a lot of the fun. It sucks, but there’s not a whole lot you can do. The real question is what would FEEL more accurate, having everything on the same tom, or having the accents on different toms like the solution you posed? They’re both good options, so it comes down to personal preference. Also, when you chart the Hard difficulty, it would be a good idea to only put notes on the accents.

 

I’m not worried about the reductions. They’d be done in a way to amplify the accents anyways.

 

I know the comparative issue, however. When I was charting out Rush’s The Pass for C3, I ran into a different but similar issue. It was 16th on the hi hat, with a few heavy accents. However, some off the accents fell on the off-hand beats. The general consensus when I asked then was the put the accents on Blue…. but I tried to reason that I just don’t like how that breaks up the Right+Left hand dynamic. You have to start doing paradiddles where you shouldn’t be.

 

I agree that it should just be either all on one pad or split both ways as I had… I’m not a fan of charting it so that the right/left dynamic is messed up as I think that’s more important.

 

However, after charting out the first 4 measures (which are my problem right now), I think I’m going to go with the one pad sadly. My pattern leaves the single pad which means I’ve been finding ways to fudge the chart to make it work. This is technically what I’m looking to accomplish:

 

 

 

 

Here’s the first 2 measures of that. Note: There are some note differences. This pattern appears several times throughout the song so this is a “general” sheet generation. For instance, this opens with flam, and those last 3 notes are not audible here.

 

 

 

I was trying to make the top charting work since it’s a hell of a lot more fun and denotes the accents actually….. but it just becomes to much of a mess when you have to adjust for more than one pad being used. I’m probably just going for the latter which accurately depicts the toms correct usage…. and I’ll just play the accents myself ha

[Author]

Posts