Percussion Staves in Finale

"It seems to me that a fair share of newer users on Young Composer.com seem to have difficulty understanding the concepts of applying percussion staves to their score in Finale. The method is actually quite simple, though it can become annoying at times. Finale, I feel, does not provide the most easy-to-understand topic on percussion staves, so this walk-through may help clarify some things. Do note that this article was written with Finale 2002 in mind and may well be outdated in some aspects." - James Householder

Creating a Percussion Stave with a Pre-Defined Percussion Map

Creating a percussion stave in the first place is the easy part. First of all, Finale offers a wide variety of Percussion Maps (or templates) which already set up the correct instruments to play in the proper place on the stave. Using these templates is simple. To insert a stave with a percussion map already installed, select "New Staves (with Setup Wizard)" from the Staff Menu. If you wish to create a stave for snare drum only, select "Snare Drum" from the Drums category. Now you have a stave that is ready for note entry and playback. Many staves have more than a single sound on each line or space, so entering notes may be deceiving at first. For instance, the snare stave will two sounds on the middle (only) line, the snare itself and a rimclick, so you need to choose which one to use for every note you enter. This is done in Speedy Entry by using the plus (+) and minus (-) keys on the NumPad until the desired sound is acquired. Unfortunately, there are two different snares available, and the dance snare will be the one that is set whilst the orchestral snare will need to be assigned to the correct (middle) line. This is where most people get confused.

Changing and Altering Percussion Maps

From the example above, we worked with a simple snare stave with two sounds, one was a rimclick, the other was (by default) a dance snare. If you try to use the + or - keys on the NumPad, you will find that the sound for the orchestral snare does not lay on the middle line of the stave, in fact, it is seven ledger lines down. To reset the selected percussion map to play the orchestral snare sound instead of the dance snare,

Ex.1.1 - Percussion Map Designer

right-click on the stave's handle and choose "Select Percussion Map...". From this window, you can choose a different pre-defined percussion map, or you can create a new one or alter existing ones. Snare Drum should already be selected, so choose "Edit...". From here you will need a reference as to which midi note number the sound you desire is designated. A chart is provided at the bottom of this article. Because the orchestral snare sound that we want resides on note 40 (E2), click on that row in the window at the left (see ex.1a). Type a distinctive name in under the Note Definition group box. Set the Playback note to the desired sound, in this case 40, or E2. Drag the handle in the small stave window to set the place of the note wherever you wish it to

File:Perc map02.png

Ex.1.2 - Percussion Map Designer

appear, in this case the middle line, or Staff Position: 6. Now you must select what symbol will be displayed as the open and closed note heads. The quickest way to do this is to find another sound already on the percussion map with the desired noteheads so you can Copy and Paste the correct characters. To do this, in this case select note 38 and copy the symbols "Ï" and "ú" to paste them in turn as the noteheads for our Orchestral Snare Drum (see ex.1b). The last that you will need to do is set which sounds are played and which are ignored during note-entry and playback. The sounds that are set will have an asterisks (*) before the note number in the window at the left. To alter the status for any note, select it and then check or un-check "Highlighted Note".

Appendix

GM Percussion Patches

In order for a percussion stave to play back correctly, it must be set to channel 10. Once a stave is set to channel 10, all sounds applied to it will come from its designated patch. The default patch selected is 00 Acoutic Grand Piano, but there are many others. If you want a brush kit, an electric kit, a gong, or realistic orchestral snare, you can select from the following patches:

000 - Standard Kit

009 - Room Kit

017 - Power Kit

025 - Electronic Kit

026 - TR-808 Kit

033 - Jazz Kit

041 - Brush Kit

049 - Orchestra Kit

057 - Sound FX Kit

128 - CM-64/CM-32L

GM Percussion Sounds

The majority of percussion patches have all the same order. The Standard, Room, Power, Electric, TR-808, and Jazz kits all share the sounds in the same order, but have distinctive tones. The Electric kit, for instance, has all the bass, snare, and toms that the standard kit does, only they sound different. On the other hand, many sounds for the orchestra and sound effects kits are drastically different.

Standard Kit, Room Kit, Power Kit, Electronic Kit, TR-808 Kit, and Jazz Kit Sounds

27 High Q

28 Slap

29 Scratch Push

30 Scratch Pull

31 Stick Click

32 Square Click

33 Metronome Click

34 Metronome Bell

35 Kick Drum 2

36 Kick Drum 1

37 Side Stick

38 Snare Drum 1

39 Hand Clap

40 Snare Drum 2

41 Low Tom 2

42 Closed Hi-Hat

43 Low Tom 1

44 Pedal Hi-Hat

45 Mid Tom 2

46 Open Hi-Hat

47 Mid Tom 1

48 High Tom 2

49 Crash Cymbal 1

50 High Tom 1

51 Ride Cymbal 1

52 Chinese Cymbal

53 Ride Bell

54 Tambourine

55 Splash Cymbal

56 Cowbell

57 Crash Cymbal 2

58 Vibraslap

59 Ride Cymbal 2

60 High Bongo

61 Low Bongo

62 Muted High Conga

63 Open High Conga

64 Low Conga

65 High Timbale

66 Low Timbale

67 High Agogo

68 Low Agogo

69 Cabaça

70 Maracas

71 High Whistle

72 Low Whistle

73 Short Guiro

74 Long Guiro

75 Claves

76 High Woodblock

77 Low Woodblock

78 Mute Cuica

79 Open Cuica

80 Mute Triangle

81 Open Triangle

82 Shaker

83 Sleigh Bells

84 Belltree

85 Castanets

86 Mute Surdo

88 Open Surdo

Brush Kit Sounds

The Brush kit has the same layout as the Standard kit, but there are three major differences:

38 Brush Tap

39 Brush Slap

40 Brush Swirl

Orchestra Kit Sounds

The following is the full list of notes that differ from the standard kit:

27 Closed Hi-Hat

28 Pedal Hi-Hat

29 Open Hi-Hat

30 Ride Cymbal

31 Stick Click

32 Square Click

33 Metronome Click

34 Metronome Bell

35 Concert Bass Drum 2

36 Concert Bass Drum 1

37 Side Stick

38 Orchestral Snare Drum

39 Castenets

40 Orchestral Snare Drum

41 Timpani F

42 Timpani F#

43 Timpani G

44 Timpani G#

45 Timpani A

46 Timpani A#

47 Timpani B

48 Timpani C

49 Timpani C#1

50 Timpani D

51 Timpani D#

52 Timpani E

53 Timpani F

54 Tambourine

55 Splash Cymbal

56 Cowbell

57 Concert Cymbal 2

58 Vibraslap

59 Concert Cymbal 1

Sound FX Kit Sounds

39 High Q

40 Slap

41 Scratch Push

42 Scratch Pull

43 Stick Click

44 Square Click

45 Metronome Click

46 Metronome Bell

47 Guitar Fret Noise

48 Guitar Cut Noise Up

49 Guitar Cut Noise Down

50 Double Bass String Slap

51 Flute Key Click

52 Laughing

53 Screaming

54 Punch

55 Heartbeat

56 Footsteps 1

57 Footsteps 2

58 Applause

59 Door Creaking

60 Door Close

61 Scratch

62 Wind Chimes

63 Car Engine

64 Car Brakes

65 Car Passing

66 Car Crash

67 Siren

68 Train

69 Jet Plane

70 Helicopter

71 Starship

72 Gun Shot

73 Machine Gun

74 Laser Gun

75 Explosion

76 Dog Bark

77 Horse Gallop

78 Bird Tweet

79 Rain

80 Thunder

81 Wind

82 Seashore

83 Stream

84 Bubble

See Also

Drumkit