Is the PLAY checkbox a property of the note object?

goal: define certain noteheads to have PLAY unchecked so they don't play in playback

I would like to define custom drum noteheads (in my custom instruments) to not play anything as they are used to show the timing of visual movements rather than played notes.

I'm using a custom soundfont, and a workaround would be for me to have an empty sound sample mapped to the notehead, but it would be better if I can set or clear the PLAY checkbox based on the notehead in my instrument definition xml file (or maybe I can do this in a plugin).

Is the PLAY checkbox a property of the note object?