Drums: Two notes on same beat

• Jul 25, 2011 - 15:10

I'm trying to write out the drums for So this Is Love by Van Halen (for a jazz arrangement) on the drumset (5 lines) but I can't put 2 notes on the same beat (i.e. when you hit the snare and high-hat at the same time). Does anybody know any way that I can put 2 notes on the same beat?

Thank you for your help.

Comments

• Jul 26, 2011 - 16:43

I'm not sure how this would be done using mouse entry, but if you've edited your drumet (right click the staff, edit drum set) to add keyboard shortcuts for the 7 sounds you need to do this with the most, then you can enter drum "chords" just as you would for ordinary notes: shift + the keyboard shortcut for the second note. The keyboard shortcuts can also be assigned to automatically place notes in the desired voice, so you can have stems go whichever way you want. So if you only need 7 different drums on a regular basis (shortcuts A-G), you can enter drum music very easily.

Also, have you seen the video tutorial on drum notation on musescoretips.com? See http://www.musescoretips.com/2011/01/drum-parts/

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• Apr 7, 2017 - 17:01

The long answer lost me at "I'm not sure how this would be done using mouse entry," :)
I still find it a bit confusing as to how exactly Voices work and why can't two notes be written on the same beat, without having to write all the pause notes in the same bar. Will check the doc sections in more depth but I expected this to be easier.
Rewriting some paper drum solos and it seems a waste of time trying to figure out how to make tom and snare sound together without having to read a manual for that first.
Cheers

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• Apr 7, 2017 - 17:08

The norm in music notation *is* for rests to be shown on beats that don't contain ntoes. There are some very specific exceptions allowed for in standard notation, and if you are familair with those rules and understand which rests it is OK to hide, you are welcome to do so by selecting the rest and pressing "V".

But, for tom and snare, you should need two voices. Those would normally be entered into the *same* voice. So that is very simple, no need for voices at all. Just enter both notes normally on the same beat - eg, after entering the snare note, click the desired tom note in the palette then click that same spot in the score and the tom is added to the chord in the same voice, just as it normally would be. You only normally use separate voices for hands versus feet in drum music, not for two different drums both played with the hands.

You can also enter multiple notes in a single chord using the keybaord, pressing Shift plus the shortcut. So to enter snare drum ("A") and high tom ("E"), type "A Shift+E".

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• Apr 7, 2017 - 17:16

Thanks for the detailed explanation. I believed I was familiar enough with the features to get the double note. The confusing part was that double-clicking the note in the drum entry window, at the bottom of the screen, was overwriting my first-entered note.
For some reason, clicking below the original note appends the second one. Guess I learned something new.

Now hopefully I will not need to enter the rests, which I find misleading in this specific case. In my view, they just complicate the score when the notes from 2 voices are played at the same time.

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• Apr 7, 2017 - 18:06

See my previous resposne. If you are truly using two different voices, then the rests *are* normally needed and are indeed shown in published music. Not having them can greatly confuse the issue, as someone reading the voice 2 notes won't understand the rhythm since you read left to right and the missing rests would normally be needed to understand it. As mentioned, there are a few specific exceptions that the rules of music notation allow for, so if you understand those rules, you are welcome to hide those rests as I explained.

But consider, with the rests in voice missing, the bass drum hit could really be anywhere, and the musician is forced to guess:

drum-rests-1.png

That's why the rules of notation call for the rests to be shown, to clarify the rhythm:

drum-rests-2.png

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• Apr 7, 2017 - 17:03

The very first response in particular contains links to the Handbook sections on "Drum notation" and on "Vocies". Those are indeed exactly the two pieces of documentation you would need to read. You can also check out the tutorial videos on the home page of this site.

If you still have trouble, feel free to attach the particular score you are working on and describing what you are trying to do, and we can give more specific help.

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• Aug 27, 2020 - 02:13

I am nine years late but to anyone still trying to figure this out especially when writing with musescore Drumline hold SHIFT and press the letter on your keyboard of the note name that has the drum you want

ie. to write stacked bass drum notes in MDL i input a for bass 4 then SHIFT b for bass 3 and the notes stack

Same thing as writing a chord for piano

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