2.

26 Percussion Click Edit Instrument; if you are prompted that editing this instrument will change the score, click Yes Now click Edit Staff Type, and choose the Percussion page. The area at the top of the dialog shows which noteheads are mapped; to see which sound is produced by a specific notehead, select it and look at the Sound read-out below. You can also see here which key on your MIDI keyboard to play to input this note see Note input for unpitched percussion below. For more information about this dialog, and about editing existing percussion instruments and defining your own, 8.14 Edit Instruments. Drum set notation, however, is sufficiently standardized that we can look at it in detail read on.

Notations

Drum set notation

To create a drum set staff in Sibelius, choose Create Instruments (shortcut I), and select either Drum Set or Drum Kit (which are identical other than the name). The Drum Set and Drum Kit instruments use a notational system based on the recommendations of the Percussive Arts Society (in Norman Weinbergs book, Guide To Standardized Drumset Notation), as follows:

Pedal hi-hat

Bass drum 1

Acoustic bass drum

Low oor tom-tom

Acoustic snare

High oor Low Tambourine tom-tom tom-tom

Low Electri c snare wood block

Open triangle

High Side stick Low-mid tom-tom wood block

High-mid Cowbel l High tom-tom tom-tom

Ride Closed cymbal 1 hi-hat

Open Crash hi-hat cymbal 1

Note input for unpitched percussion

When inputting into percussion staves, you can use any of Sibeliuss input methods, but if the percussion instrument uses different types of noteheads, it is quicker to use step-time or Flexi-time input than to use mouse or alphabetic input. Consider the following simple example, for kick and snare drums with open and closed hi-hats on a regular drum kit:

The quarter notes (crotchets) are in voice 2 and use the default notehead, and the eighth notes (quavers) and sixteenth notes (semiquavers) are in voice 1, and use the cross notehead. (If you dont use the cross notehead, the notes wont play back as hi-hats.) If you input this music with the mouse or using alphabetic input, you will need to change the voice 1 notes to use the cross notehead after inputting them: 161