drum notation: add ornaments for open hi-hats

• Oct 10, 2022 - 22:26

Hello, I'm new to MuseScore, been testing it out for the past hour. I am quite used to Sibelius, and MuseScore is very difficult to get used to since I can chart other instruments as well (i.e. not just drums).

How do I add ornaments to my open hi-hats? I tried to edit the open hi-hats but it seems no ornament versions are available.

And just in general, can MuseScore do what Sibelius does e.g. metric modulations? I write pretty complex things for drums sometimes which is why I need my ornaments. Although open hi-hats is pretty generic. (I have about 4-6 different ways to play hi-hats with sticks, for example.)


Comments

To add ornaments, see the Ornaments palette. Also, I assume you really mean an Articulation (e.g., the circular symbol sometimes used for h hat), not an ornament (e.g., a mordent). In which case, use the articulations palette instead.

Not sure what you mean when you say "difficult to get used to since I can chart other instruments as well". Both Sibelius and MuseScore are capable of creating charts for multiple instruments, but feel free to explain in your difficulty in more detail, and we can try to help.

If by metric modulations you mean, time signature changes and/or tempo markings like quarter = dotted quarter, yes, that is perfectly simple, just use the Time Signatures palette and Tempo palette respectively.

In reply to by Marc Sabatella

Articulation yes, my bad.

May I ask, what about note groupings? For example, the standard note groups for 7/8 time signature is 3-2-2. 3 quavers, 2 quavers, 2 quavers respectively. But sometimes from a drummer's perspective, the groove sounds more like 4-3, meaning 2-2-3. Does MuseScore lock the note grouping to 3-2-2 or can we change that?

Since you're moving from one notation software to another it'll be worth it to quickly skim over the online handbook. Since you're already familiar with most aspects of computerized notation it shouldn't take that long and will alert you to how MuseScore approaches things.

For the open hi-hat in particular I'd start with ensuring the drumset definition displays the same base note for both open and closed hi-hat. You can then (after initial entry) make use of "Select > More" to select all the open hi-hats in the score at once, followed by clicking the desired articulation in the palettes to have it applied to all the selected notes at once.

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