You are all welcome! It took me a while to set up the long text, but I had the time (obviously), and I really wanted to give an idea what this thing (chart reading) is all about. At the same time I could demonstrate visually how odd phrasing looks like and how it works in changing clave direction.
Yes, "open" means the same as "rep. ad lib.", as opposed to being limited to a fixed amount of bars in duration. Let me add that the same percussion part can look completely different, depending on who wrote the chart, and how. I had already mentioned that it could have been written in 2/4 instead of cut time (2/2). I've seen comparable charts notated in 4/4, which means that in a clave change by odd phrasing you have to insert a 2/4 bar, which is a meter change. All of the musical terms could be written in Spanish or any other language. The given numbers of bars in a section could be replaced by real written-out bars with slashes and repeat signs (./.). Correspondingly, repeat signs could have been used in the last 3 bars of the 4-bar crescendo after the piano solo.
Also, it's a luxury to find so much useful information in a chart. Sometimes the clave direction is not marked. Then you must either ask, speculate from the figures that appear in your chart or spy into the trumpet charts. Or you can have someone sing the melody for you. Sometimes a chart does not say where to play cáscara or bell, or what is happening in the ensemble; you may be advised to play softly (p=piano) for a certain passage, and when you arrive there you realize it's a piano solo. Alternatively, it might only say "piano solo", and you are supposed to know that you have to cut down dynamics by playing cáscara/bongó/1 tumbadora. (Tip for the bongoceros: Don't burst into a wild repique under the piano solo, because that draws the listeners attention from the soloist. Playing only martillo or a one-bar pattern with the 4+ as the only accent is smart.)
Most arrangers don't have a clue what a percussionist is doing, or what he can do, and they know that. So they leave it up to us what we do in all those empty bars. On the other hand, I would have a serious problem if I had to read a percussion part where each and every note is written out! Fortunately, I haven't seen anything like that so far. But I have seen charts that were overloaded with tons of information that I didn't need, like written-out fills (rellenos). Fills should be improvised. It is unnecessary and confusing to mix the obsolete with the relevant.
- although I am internally hoping that nobody ever hands me one of those and expects anything from me, other than a paper plane!
First of all, like Chtimulato said, the only secret is practice, doing something over and over again, gathering experience. "What you do most is what you do best", is what the Zen master archer said in Eugen Herrigel's book "Zen in the Art of Archery". And don't be afraid to lose your feeling, your communication with the other musicians in the band or whatever, because you are reading your part. That's B.S.! It is absolutely possible (and of prime importance) to play together with your fellow musicians and to supply power, swing and feeling while you read. I know it, because I experienced it. I don't know why this works, but it does. Maybe it has to do with the brain hemispheres, or with conditioning?
On the other hand, the moment of truth comes in the actual performance. Nobody will ask you how you learned the music as long as you are delivering a top performance on stage. That's all that counts, no matter whether you read or not. In fact, it looks much better on stage
not to read while you are performing. So if you are able to learn the tunes by quickly memorizing all the signals you need, like song text passages /vocal cues, and you remember them in performance, then you don't need all that paper, and that's even better. To a certain degree it's also possible to learn the music while performing. But I have worked with band leaders who gave everybody their charts except the percussionists, like "Oh, you don't need any music, you'll hear it." And ahead lied a senseless parcours of getting lost, falling into pits and running into walls with no end - another proof for the assumption that some musicians have no idea of what it is that we do.
Which brings me to a final aspect: The guy who brings in some new charts for the band has perhaps spent hours and hours of work and inspiration, using all the skills that he can contribute as a composer or arranger. He might have written some wonderful music that nobody would ever get to hear if the musicians wouldn't play it. If you bear with his ignorance about percussion, and if you can read his chart, then you are able to help giving birth to this great music that no one, not even you, has ever heard before. So don't feel threatened by the guy and all his music sheets, and don't put him down for not knowing what an Abakuá rhythm sounds like. Be as supportive as you can! If he screwed up the clave, things become a bit more complicated: If he is unlikely or unwilling to accept your advice and edit his arrangement, you have to prove some inventiveness. Remember that some of the best Latin /Cuban bands have recorded tracks that were
cruzado, among them Los Van Van and Irakere. If this becomes too annoying after some time, you can still quit the band!
Thomas