Rhythm Bash

Thing I used: MuseScore 3
My rating: 9.5/10
(The audio is slightly distorted but I can't fix it.)
In this piece, I wanted to practice writing more interesting rhythms, since my rhythms so far have mostly been pretty boring. It’s similar to Go Time in a few ways, except I messed around even more.
To help myself out, I enlisted the help of a new instrument: the drum set. I have little knowledge of how to write for it, so I had to do a bit of research just to come up with something intelligible. I’m sure drummers will have plenty of criticisms, but even so, I think the instrument proved invaluable in the piece. It’s just nice to understand it as well, since it’s fairly popular.
I separated the concept of rhythm into three categories: note values/groupings, time signatures, and tempos (tempi). Tempos seemed pretty self-explanatory, and I have more experience with it, so I didn’t experiment with it as much as the other two.
Here are some things I learned or think I learned:
Rhythm is similar to harmony in a few ways, and specifically both become more interesting if they deviate from expectations enough to be noticeable but not too jarring or confusing. Essentially, notes played on the beat or strong beats are expected, especially if they are emphasized. In other words, syncopation is good. However, just like with harmony, there should be resolution every once in a while. A lack of resolution results in dissonance, which can be another tool in itself.
I believe if a note comes before its expected time (e.g. the fourth sixteenth note of a beat while the next beat is empty), it adds momentum, and if it occurs after its expected time (e.g. the second sixteenth note of a beat while the first is empty), it stops momentum but then makes a resolution more satisfying and dramatic. The note values matter as well, not only the placement of the notes. Extending the note, especially until the next note, carries momentum throughout, leading to the next note. Not doing this will make the next note potentially more of a surprise and emphasized. Each result has its place.
I didn’t mess with note groupings a lot because I found it difficult, but intuitively, shorter note groupings have more momentum. Enforcing the groupings can be achieved through simple emphasized notes or more interestingly through pitch; chords add emphasis, and patterns of notes can form groups.
Regarding time signatures, they seem to mostly create more opportunities for surprise and drama. Adding time to a bar decreases momentum while decreasing time adds momentum. You can unexpectedly add or remove beats for effect. The different groupings of time signatures can create results as mentioned earlier. Other than that, I’m not sure.
Once again, tempos are pretty self-explanatory. Slower means less energy, faster means more energy, and the changes can be gradual or not for surprise or not.
Maybe I could’ve tried specific dance rhythms from various styles as well. Oh well. I can look into those sometime.
Learning aside, I was very pleased with how the piece began; it could’ve been a first time 10/10 if it kept up. Not that the piece got worse over time, it’s just hard to hold everything together for 5 minutes, and I get pretty numb to the good parts of any of my pieces if I listen to them too much, which I usually do. I hope you all, as unbiased listeners, enjoy this as much as I did at the start. The drum set goes hard.
I figured I could get away with going crazy with the harmonies if the rhythm was solid enough. The quartal harmonies, parallel chords (chord planing?), and even some jazz chromaticism seemed to work well, but I definitely still have to work on dissonance. As well as rhythmic dissonance, probably, for that matter. I heard that term from my teacher a while ago and thought it was cool. I can say I’ve tried it now.
Overall, it’s a little messy but very cool in my eyes, and I’m glad I took the risks that I did. Hopefully I can apply the new rhythm ideas to future pieces.

[@TristinBailey]

Hello, drum guy here. Specific advice and general notational nitpicking: At mm. 25 (1:04) the triplet figure across the toms and snare should be flipped. You can do this by selecting the triplet (or any notes within it) and pressing "x". This is just for legibility, as it's difficult to read when the notes and beams are all overlapping. Continuing into mm. 26/27, the snare and tom notes should remain connected to the hi-hat line since they are playing the same subdivisions. The bass drum stems should always be facing down, so things like mm. 27 can be read easily. In mm. 51 (1:54) the hi-hat hits can all be quarter notes, and you don't need rests underneath them. If you're dead set on those hi-hat hits being really short, put staccato over them. However, we can't really control the duration a closed hi-hat will ring since it's already being muffled. In mm. 87 (3:15), the "3" indicating a triplet should be under the the beam that's playing triplet divisions. Everything between mm 132-144 (4:56 - 5:05) is really cool. General advice and other stuff: Note duration is less important on kit unless there's little going on or the piece is written to be technically challenging. It doesn't make a different if you write a quarter note and three quarter rests in the bass drum or just a whole note, we're only going to hit the drum once. Without special instruction or some obvious cue (i.e. all other performers cut off at that time), the drum won't intentionally be muted on the rest. If it is played with the sticks (snare, toms, cymbals), the stem should face upwards. If it is played with the foot pedals, the stem should face downwards (bass drum, hi-hat pedal). The only exception is during polyrhythms where another stem is needed to clearly show the divisions. Such as when you had the snare/toms playing triplets and the hi-hat playing duplets. Alternatively you could notated it all under a single sextuplet, but that's often unnecessary. We don't need rests everywhere to help with counting if we're playing something else. If you have straight eighths in the hi-hat and the bass drum is playing on 1 and 3 (assuming you're in 4/4), you don't need quarter rests on 2 and 4. The bass drum hits will line up with every fourth hi-hat hit and the drummer will know when everything should be played. It helps with readability if you can minimize the amount of symbols you use to convey the same music. Finally, tempo isn't as straightforward as you make it seem. Look into metric modulations a bit, they're really cool. The basic idea is that you can shift the tempo around so that subdivisions from earlier become the new pulse.

[@Alan-mh7lo]

A review of this piece from a drum guy is quite the gift. Thanks for the notation conventions. I did notice how illegible some of the measures looked, but yeah, I didn't know the proper solution (nor did I care to try one, clearly). It seems like what you're saying is that apart from having stems down for foot pedals and stems up for sticks, I can switch stems, join flags, or change note durations in whatever way that will make the most sense to read. That makes sense; I'll keep it in mind. As for metric modulations, while I've seen them before, I had no idea that's what they were called, so I'm happy to be enlightened. They are really cool. I guess in my mind I viewed them as something very similar to just changing the time signature or grouping of the notes, and from the few examples I looked at, that can be the case. However, I see now that there are other applications. In fact, I've played a piece in which a 3/4 signature becomes a 4/4 signature while the time in a bar stays the same, which I wouldn't be able to do reasonably with only time signatures or groupings. They are certainly more nontraditional examples of tempo changes, though. We'll see, maybe I'll try it one day.