This document describes the history and the use of a pattern generator for drummers called "DrumPatterns". For the moment, we will only focus on the member coordination (arms and feet). Independence and polyrythm will be taken into account later.
To introduce the subject, the best is to try the program available online from the DrumPatterns Home Page, with its default values. If you are already a drummer, the score will remind you something. Download the midi file and play it with a midi sequencer.
What DrumPatterns is useful for ? Practicing drum patterns.
This little program is a interesting demonstration of what can be done with Perl, CGI.pm and the HTTP protocol.
The software archive can be downloaded with ftp on the site linux-france.com.
I start with an analogy with the written language. We write texts which are made up of paragraphs. Paragraphs are made up of sentences, sentences are made up of words and words are made up of letters.
When someone wants to become a drummer, he has to work lots of exercises, stodgy at first sight, that help learning words, the vocabulary. The analogy is limited because the letters (the alphabet) are only a few. These letters are the strokes done by both hands and feet, right and left. The vocabulary is not predefined, it is "free".
The goal is to generate all the possible words (patterns) from an alphabet (right hand, left hand, right foot, left foot, silence) and some work rules (max consecutive tricks, patterns length), proved by experience.