Three questions from a Percussion Teacher and beginner to Musescore
Hi!
I am a drum teacher who have alot of beginner students and i'm trying out Musescore to see if i can make easy to learn arrangements for a beginner percussion ensemble of 4 - 6 kids, so this is where i'm coming from. I find Musescore somewhat intuitive and easy to work with (atleast this newest version 3.0) but i still have four questions that i can't seem to find the answer to.
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Is there a way to get Musescore to show the name of every note (preferably on top of the note)? That would help my beginner students alot.
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When i choose a ”Concert Snare Drum” it sounds like a ”Tom-Tom”. Are additional plug-ins required for every instrument to sound correctly?
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Is there a way to connect notes of different instruments. In the drumset-part (see picture) i would like to connect the Bass Drum eighth note with the Snare Drum eighth note via a beam (instead of them being separate eighth notes as in the picture). Can i do that and if so how?
Thanks in advance
Isak
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Comments
I think you should take a look at:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/plugins#note-names
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/language-translations-and-extension… (MDL)
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/voices
In reply to I think you should take a… by Shoichi
And also https://musescore.org/en/handbook/3/drum-notation
As the resident critic of the drum palette, for number three I would edit the palette to take out all the sounds you don't need. Then put the drums in voice one and the cymbals in voice two. Then you have to save it as a style and reload it every time you need to use it.
The "Edit Drumset" button is to the left when the palette is open.
The note names plugin could preusmably be altered to use percussion names instead of pitch names, but I'm not sure it would be possible to get this info directly from the drumset definition - they might have to be hard coded into the plugin. If so, that means you'd want to make sure your drumset definition agrees with the plugin.
MuseScore by default uses the usual drumset standard in which hands go stems up, feet go stems down. That's why bass drum and snare drum are in different voices and don't beam together. If you prefer an alternative style of notation in which bass and snare are in the same voice and hence are beamed together, use the edit drumset button as mentioned, and see the Handbook section on drum notation for more info.
Regarding concert snare, I definitely get a snare - "A" enters side stick, "B" enters normal playing on the head with snares on. Did you perhaps install a third party soundfont? That might not be compatible. If you're just using the default soundfont (MuseScore_General in View / Synthesizer / Fluid) and aren't see that work, please attach your score so we can understand and assist further.
In reply to The note names plugin could… by Marc Sabatella
I found the way to put the note names over each note which will be a godsend for my beginner percussion students. By putting the bass drum and snare drum in the same voice i got them to beam together (see picture below) so now i know how to fix that which will help (visually) the student playing those two drums alot.
I haven't installed any plug-ins, basically just downloaded Musescore 3.0 and that's it. This is what my Concert Snare sounds like though (see link below) and i don't know how to get it to sound like it's supposed to, that is, drum-head with snares on.
http://sndup.net/y6t4
In reply to I found the way to put the… by isakahlman
As mention, we'd really need you to attach your score, much more useful than pictures or sound clicps/ From the picture, it definitely does not look like you simply added concert snare drum from the instrument list though - that would normally be a single-line staff with only two defined pitches as I described. So maybe also describe what you did instead. I'm guessing maybe you first added a normal drumset them somehow attempted to change it to concert snare, but still entered notes using the old drumset definition?
In reply to As mention, we'd really need… by Marc Sabatella
Hi again and sorry, my earlier picture referred to my question regarding how to beam a snare drum and a bass drum together in the drumset part, which i have sorted out. Here comes the whole score where i still can't seem to get the Concert Snare Drum to sound as it should.
In reply to Hi again and sorry, my… by isakahlman
I assume it's the bottom staff, the one labeled "Konsert-virveltrumma", that you are wanting to be concert nsnare drum? And I'll guess that you created that using the defaults for your language (Norwegian?), not a customize instruments.xml file?
If so, then this should work fine when entering notes normally. But it seems you didn't enter them normally. Not sure how you entered them. But if I go to that staff, press N for note input note, and type "A B", I get a side stick & a snare sound just as I said. Did you maybe try entering notes from a MIDI keyboard that was sending a different pitch? MuseScore records whatever pitch your keyboard sends. Same if you actually entered the notes onto a different staff using a different pitch then copied and pasted onto this staff - the original MIDI pitches are preserved. But any notes you enter directly onto this staff normally - typing, or using the drum palette - should come out as expected.
You can also easily convert these pitches to the proper ones by selecting the contents of the staff and pressing Up or Down to "transpose" the pitches - MuseScore automatically coerces them to the nearest pitch that is actually defined for the staff.
In reply to I assume it's the bottom… by Marc Sabatella
I figured out what i did wrong. I somehow managed to put in notes without choosing either A or B in the Edit Drumset section at the bottom. I just deleted that particular instrument part, created a new one and choose B in the Edit Drumset part for a "proper" Snare sound and now it works as it should. Note to self: Don't forget the Edit Drumset option next time (as i was abit confused at first since i couldn't put in any notes without first make an option here). Thanks for all the help and i'm sure to have more questions in the future. I'm from Sweden btw and yeah "Konsert-virveltrumma" mean "Concert Snare Drum" as you've already figured out ;)
In reply to I figured out what i did… by isakahlman
To be clear: you don't need to use the Edit Drumset button at all. The default drumset already has the two notes you need. All you need to do is press the "B" key on your keyboard to enter the snare note. If you prefer using the mouse, simply click the desired note on the drum palette (not the Edit Drumset window, which is completely separate), then click in your score as much as you like. or double-click the palette note. But you don't need the Edit Drumset button unless you wish to notate other sounds than the default two.
For more information on drum notation, be sure to read the Handbook - it explains all the relevant concepts and processes in great detail.
In reply to To be cloear: you don't need… by Marc Sabatella
”If you prefer using the mouse, simply click the desired note on the drum palette”
When i said ”Edit Drumset Part” i of course meant the ”Drum Set Palette” so i did just like you said ;)