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Topic: percussion, and only percussion (Read 3887 times) previous topic - next topic

percussion, and only percussion

some friends and i are trying to put together cadences that we're writing, and i'm confused on the percussion notation.  like, i can't find quarter notes with the slash through them for the diddle or same with eighth and sixteenth notes.. any way to just put the bass drum, snare drum, and tenor drums together to make the score or what?

it's a bit hard for me to explain it, but yeah..

thanks.

Re: percussion, and only percussion

Reply #1 –
er, also.. wanted to know if i could JUST write a tenor drum part, or a bass drum part, etc.

Re: percussion, and only percussion

Reply #2 –
You wanna JUST write a tenor drum part?
Don't you wanna write JUST a tenor drum part?
I need to find out for sure.

Re: percussion, and only percussion

Reply #3 –
Hey lynx, you'll have to excuse Clara. She can't help being that way, she's not a drummer.

If you want to do drums, and only drums, NWC probably won't give you what you need. At least not easily. There has been a replacement font written (by Robert A, a frequent contributor to the forum) that gives you the x-noteheads. You can accomplish slashes by using other "User" fonts such as the Boxmarks or other music fonts available at the NWC Scriptorium. Same with other decorations like flams and rolls (trills).

So given enough care and attention you can make a drum staff that is visually correct. You'll want to "mute" that staff for playback purposes, because the way that drum instruments are mapped in midi don't correspond with anything in the "real" world.

For the sounded aspect, it's probably best to have a separate staff (hidden from view but sounded) that contains the actual midi track. Have a look in your Samples folder; DRUMREF.nwc is your friend.

Re: percussion, and only percussion

Reply #4 –
Thanks for the mention, Fred.

If the purpose of the only-drum part is to show cadence (perhaps for practicing), and it does not need to relate to any other music, there is another possible solution.

My "Bongos" True Type font can be found on the Scriptorium and on my own web site. It is easy to use in any word processor.

Re: percussion, and only percussion

Reply #5 –
She can't help being that way, she's not a drummer.
Yeah, she's smart...

Re: percussion, and only percussion

Reply #6 –
Indeed Fred, DRUMREF.nec really can be your friend.  I did some arrangements of Steel Drum tunes that I've played, and I wanted to hear how it would sound with a Calypso Drum set pattern.  So I went into the DRUMREF and found the sounds of the Snare and Bass drums, and all the cymbols including the hi-hat closed and opened sounds.  I constructed the drum pattern, but here is the catch.  I was using an older version at the time and tried to do the above with a new composition page, but all my worked yeilded pitchs rather than drum and cymbol sounds.  So I ended up opening DRUMREF, deleted all of the existing notes and "sounds" and constructed my Calypso drum pattern from that page. I saved it as a new creation and VIOLA!  SUCCESS!  Then all I did was copy my Steel Pan arrangement to additional staff lines above the drum set part and that was it.  A lot easier than it sounds I promise you.  Even went in later and added a part for Conga drums.

Re: percussion, and only percussion

Reply #7 –
Howard - If I'm reading your post correctly, your new file would have worked fine if you'd set the midi channel to channel 10 (Staff Properties, Midi tab).

Re: percussion, and only percussion

Reply #8 –
On the Scriptorium is a piece called "Black Bear" which uses a hidden staff to play drumming, including rolls, and a visible staff to show, without playing, the traditional drum music notation. It also includes a fife part. The information included has with the file has more information. It uses a couple of fonts available on the Scriptorium (details in the info). I just posted a similar reply on https://forum.noteworthycomposer.com/?topic=3703.msg22952#msg22952