Table of Contents Adding a Drum Staff & General MIDI Drum Map

Editing Finale Percussion Maps

Slash Notation, Rhythmic Notation & Kicks Over Time

Articulations and Measure Expressions

Playback & Libraries

3

4

5

6

7

Dear Student:

We are pleased to offer the new 1-hour series classes. Based on student’s comments,

suggestions, and frequently addressed software concerns, we have expanded the Learning Center’s

course curriculum. These classes are more focused and not as broad, covering less material in

greater depth. The 1-hour series are all more advanced classes, so if you are unfamiliar with the

software, we suggest you take the basics classes first.

Thank you, and as always we welcome your questions, comments and concerns.

Ricardo Poza rpoza@berklee.edu

Chris Fitzgerald cfitzgerald@berklee.edu

In Finale: Drum Notation we will cover General MIDI drum mapping, configuring drum staves,

adding slash notation and stop time, manipulating playback, saving libraries and more!

Visit us at learningcenter.berklee.edu

(617) 747-2669 (150 Massachusetts Avenue Building)

Learning Center Staff

Revision: Summer 2006

learningcenter.berklee.edu

- 3 – Adding a Drum Staff & General MIDI Drum Map

Because drum sets are not pitch specific, they are notated

differently than other instruments. The pieces of the drums played

with the feet are notated with the stems down, and those played

with the hands or drum sticks, stems up. Cymbals are X noteheads,

and the rest are solid.

Crash

Hi hat Snare

Toms

Kick

drum Hi hat

pedal

To add a drum set staff, go

to the Staff Tool and choose

New Staves (With Setup

Wizard) from the Staff menu.

Highlight the drum set, then click Add and Finish.

Each drum sound is assigned to a different MIDI

note, and Finale uses Percussion Maps to translate where the drum belongs on the staff.

In General MIDI, the drumset sounds start 2 octaves below middle C

Kick

(C2)

Snare

(C#2 – E2)

Toms

(F2, G2, A2, B2, C3)

Hi Hat

(foot F#2

closed G#2,

open Bb2)

Crash

(C#3)

Ride

(Eb3)

Splash

(E3)

Finale has four layers

in order to have

multiple parts in one

staff. Put stems up in

layer 1, stems down in layer 2.

Editing Finale Percussion Maps - 4 -

Next do the same for the open hi hat at pitch Bb2

Simple Entry

Choose your duration from the Simple Entry

palette and place the note on the staff. There

are a few discrepancies between Finale and

Berklee standards, and peculiarities with the

drumset percussion map. For example, clicking

to add a snare will give you an x notehead, and

a rim shot sound. Also, Finale places the hi hat

above the staff rather than at the top space.

Choose Edit for the Drum Set in the

percussion map selection

To change these

two discrepancies,

go to Edit Staff

Attributes for the

drum staff. Choose

Select next to the

percussion notation style.

Scroll down to pitch C#2, the side stick.

Because the side stick is above the snare in

order, Finale defaults to the side stick, and

the X notehead. To change this, take the

side stick out of the notes the drum map

uses by selecting it and unchecking Highlighted Note.

Now scroll down to the hi hat at pitch

F#2 and select it. Change the staff

position by dragging the handle down from above the staff to the top space.

Now you can enter

your drum notation to Berklee’s standards.

Speedy Entry

If you are using a MIDI controller, entering the

notes with speedy entry is much easier (refer to

the drum map on page 2). Finale will translate

the MIDI note to the right place on the staff according to the percussion map.

If you need to flatten a beam in the speedy entry tool, use the slash (\) key.

learningcenter.berklee.edu

- 5 – Slash Notation, Rhythmic Notation & Kicks Over Time

There are a number

of ways to simplify

your drum scores,

making it easier on

you, and allowing

your drummer more

freedom with their

playing. These are

called Staff Styles and

they are created with the staff tool.

Slash Notation

You can indicate a style and then use slashes to really give

your drummer a lot of freedom. Select the measures you

want slashes on, go to the Staff menu and select Apply Staff Style. When the window comes up, select Slash Notation.

If you are OK with your drummer improvising within

a specific drum groove, you can input the drum

notation for a few measures and then write “simile” above slashes.

Rhythmic Notation (or stop time)

You may want the whole band to break down

to a particular rhythmic figure during a measure

for accent. You can accomplish this with the

Rhythmic Notation staff style. Add the rhythm in

the measure on any pitches, and then create the staff style the same way as before.

Kicks Over Time

If you want the band to

accent a certain rhythm,

are not concerned with

which specific drums are

played, and want the

groove to continue

without going into stop

time, you can add the

rhythm on top of slash notation.

Apply slash notation, and

add the rhythm in layer 2,

above the staff. Point the

stems up with the L key,

and click and drag any

rests up above the staff.

Choose Define Staff Styles from the Staff menu, and then Select from the Staff Styles window.

Now check Show Notes In Other Layers,

and you have kicks over time.

Articulations and Measure Expressions - 6 -

Add further playing directions with the Articulation Tool.

Open and closed hi hat

Let ring

Fills

Create a new text expression

using the JazzText font. Type

OPTION-COMMA, then the

text. Change the font size as necessary.

Playback

In Finale, drum sounds are

played through general MIDI,

which always reserves channel

10 for percussion. If your drums

are being played back as

piano pitches, or something

else, you’ll have to change the instrument channel.

Name your instrument, and change it to channel 10

Go to the Window menu and open up the

Instrument List. If the instrument is anything other

than drums on channel 10, click on the instrument name and select New Instrument.

Double-click to

add an expression

and choose

Create.

Drum notation with the Expression Tool

In the Text menu,

change the font to

EngraverFontSet, and

the size to 36

Then type in (i), which

will give you the “let ring” symbol

learningcenter.berklee.edu

- 7 - Playback & Libraries

Finale has a lot of drum-style grooves stored for your use. With the Mass Edit Tool,

highlight the measures that you want to add Finale’s drums. Go to the Plug-in menu, Scoring and Arranging, and Drum Groove.

Choose the style, and then choose to either add it to an existing drum staff, or create a new one.

Unfortunately, the notation is all in

one layer, and looks like a big

mess. You can put time slashes

over it with the Staff Tool, and it will

still play back.

For orchestral percussion, or other

types of drums, look through the instrument list in the set up wizard

Each of these instruments makes

use of a percussion map to

translate MIDI notes to the

correct staff position. All of

these maps are editable to your

liking, and you can even create your own percussion maps.

When you have your

percussion maps set up,

save the library from the

File menu. Now they will be

available in all the Finale files on your computer.