Percussion

Whether you are creating music for drum set, orchestral percussion, or a drum line, Finale allows you to easily create, notate, and playback percussion parts.

Staves configured for percussion entry can be added with the Document Setup Wizard or the ScoreManager. These staves automatically ignore key signatures and transpositions, and are configured for intuitive entry whether you are using a mouse, computer keyboard, or MIDI keyboard for entry. See Percussion note entry.

Note: See Tutorial 9: Percussion for a step-by-step tutorial on creating percussion in Finale.

Percussion Layouts

Finale’s percussion notation offers a great deal of flexibility and control through the use of percussion layouts. A percussion layout is a list of defined percussion instruments available for use in a staff. This definition includes staff position, notehead style, and note type (snare drum, cymbals, etc.). The same percussion layout can be used for multiple staves and can be edited in the Percussion Layout Designer dialog box. See also To edit percussion layouts.

Orange percussion notes indicate notes that are not assigned to a percussion layout in the Percussion Layout Designer dialog box. This may occur, for example, if you have opened a file that includes notes that were not used (not "highlighted") in the previous Finale version's Percussion Map Designer. These notes will look and playback correctly, but do not conform to the Percussion Layout paradigm introduced in Finale 2011. To assign these notes to Note Types, see To assign Note Types for regions of percussion notation.

Note that if your original percussion map was not one of the General MIDI maps, the wrong note types may have been assigned as your file was converted to the Finale 2014 format. You can reconvert Note Types to the Finale 2014 standard using the Change Note Types dialog box.

Percussion input and playback

To ensure your percussion notation is configured properly for your playback instrument, select the appropriate Percussion MIDI Map in the ScoreManager. See Configuring Percussion Playback for details.

Percussion MIDI channels

To accommodate older MIDI devices that require channel 10 for percussion, the first non-pitched percussion Instrument added with either the Setup Wizard or the ScoreManager is set to channel 10, bank 1. In other words, channel 10 is reserved for non-pitched percussion on bank 1 (with the other 15 channels of bank 1 open for any Instrument). Additional percussion instruments added are assigned to the next available channel (1-9, then 11-16, and then 1-16 on the next bank, and so forth.) Channel 10 on banks 2-8 are not reserved for percussion. The channel 10 reservation only applies to new instruments added with the Setup Wizard or the ScoreManager, and if the percussion Instrument set to channel 10 is deleted, Finale will not change any other percussion Instruments to channel 10 or otherwise shuffle channel assignments. (MIDI/Audio > Reassign Playback Sounds, however, does reserve channel 10 of bank 1 for percussion).

Percussion note entry

Entering percussion with Simple Entry (by clicking)

Entering percussion with an external MIDI keyboard

Entering percussion with Speedy Entry

Entering percussion with HyperScribe

Loading a percussion layout library

Saving a percussion layout library

Creating a percussion staff

Editing percussion layouts

Creating a percussion staff with a customized percussion layout

Adjusting stem connections on noteheads

Creating slashes-with-cues drum notation