Bruce E. Clausen wrote:
Another beginner's question: I'm trying to lay out a score that has one utility percussion part (orch. bells, bass drum, sus. cym., snare). It is unclear from the manual just how to accomplish this task. If I choose a percussion clef, I can't add the (pitched) bells and have a functioning key sig. or be able to add accidentals. If I follow the manual, I'm supposed to "map" the percussion, but it is supremely confusing. And playback is even more opaque. Can anyone help? Thanks!!
I've done this before, and this is how I did it, in 2007. This method only works with a MIDI keyboard to enter the pitches. I don't know how it is done without a MIDI keyboard, in fact, I don't think you can take advantage of Percussion Maps giving you automatic placement, playback, and X-heads unless you use a MIDI keyboard.
I chose Drum Set from the Setup Wizard as the instrument, because I know this drum map pretty well already, and it contains most of the instruments I am likely to use in an average perc part. It uses the GM drum map when I use the SmartMusic SoftSynth playback. I don't know what you are using as playback, so I can't address that. I don't need perfect playback for most of my purposes, so you might not like a drumset snare and mounted crash cymbal instead of a classical snare and hand cymbals.
I change the staff name to Percussion and (this is important!) the Part Name as well, if you are using linked parts. I expected the Part Name to change to reflect the new Staff Name, but no, I realised later, that sometimes you want different staff names in the score than the part is named. If you are using a different playback, then choose that in the Setup Wizard and you won't have to rename.
Now when you are entering notes, use the General MIDI note in Speedy to enter, and it will automatically show up on the proper space and with the proper notehead. For instance, check the General MIDI Percussion Map Table on page A-51 of the docs in 2007. You can see that entering MIDI note number 35 (which is B 2 octaves and a second below middle C) will play the acoustic bass drum, which should show up on the first line of the staff. You can see that there are a lot of cymbals to choose from, all of which show up on different lines or spaces, and all use X heads. Snare is the D an octave and a 7th below middle C.
If you want these instruments to show up on different lines than their defaults, or if you are using a different map (there are many to choose from, and you can edit them yourself) then these instructions may vary.
For the bells part, just apply the staff style Normal Notation (N is the metatool in my default file) to the passage, which should give you a clef, key and 5 lines for the bells. If you want correct playback, you will need to create a non-printing expression that sends a patch change to Orch Bells, then back to percussion again when the passage is over.
If you ever have the bells at the same time as an unpitched perc instrument, I suggest using two different staves, and optimise away the empty ones in the score and part. This is much easier.
Christopher _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
