General "Percussion" staff

• Sep 10, 2011 - 21:25
Reported version
2.1
Type
Functional
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Status
closed
Project
MuseScore

A general "Percussion" instrument in the selection box would be very helpful. To accommodate for the lack of this, the composer currently has to insert a vibes part into every score, change it to percussion clef (without the drumset), and rename it. It would also be useful to have this staff muted by default if the sounds don't back properly.

Comments

• Sep 10, 2011 - 22:11

A couple ways:
1. It is labeled "Percussion" (for concert band, orchestra, etc.)
2. It doesn't use "drumset mode" by default, allowing the composer to enter pitches anywhere on the staff with whatever noteheads he/she desires
or
2. It uses a different set of "drumset mode" pitches that are focused on auxiliary percussion, such as triangle, claves, woodblock, etc.

Essentially, it is one staff that combines the aux. percussion instruments available in the instrument selection menu, and lays it out as a normal percussion staff would.

Reply

• Sep 10, 2011 - 22:48

I think you'd want the drumset mode - otherwise, you'd find the pitches you needed to enter to get the playback you wanted wouldn't line up with the pitches you wanted for display. That's kind of the whole point of drumset mode. So it sounds like you'd want a custom drum set that came pre-attached to an instrument called "percussion". Luckily, both of these things are already possible - you just have to edit the instruments.xml file to add the "percussion" instrument, and then create a custom drum set from the drum set editor.

And if you make those customizations, maybe you could submit them for the next release?

Reply

• Dec 7, 2011 - 03:11

I'm surprised MuseScore doesn't already have this feature. As a percussionist, I halfway expect every new piece for band or orchestra to be labeled "Percussion" and have a different instrument on each line. Calling it "drum set" would mean completely different. On a part labeled "Percussion" I would expect to see gong, triangle, wind chimes, suspended cymbal, etc. On a part labeled "Drum Set" I would expect a part for drum kit, meaning hi-hat, kick drum, snare, crash and ride cymbal. It would be great if Muse Score had a general "percussion" staff function, perhaps where one drags and drops the desired instrument into the single staff.

Reply

• May 20, 2015 - 04:50

I support this, I was just wondering about this but got no answer, I'm writing a marching band piece and this would definitely help. I have seen other marching band score. and they have at least one or two "auxiliary" parts, which is just basic percussion instruments in one staff, or general percussion, all concert band pieces do this also.

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