Mark Ralston asked: > >I'd be interested to hear how other composers/arrangers on this list > >create their Finale percussion parts for various uses (orchestra, > >band, pop, pit orchestra, etc.).>>
Well, this is not Finale-specific. In fact it goes 'way back to hand copying and before that to the couple of years of drum lessons I had in high school. I have always used normal noteheads for snare (3rd space) and BD (1st space), and for toms crowded onto the lines and spaces between the two. My concern is that it LOOK to the drummer the way I want it to sound, and I leave the execution to them. Mostly I indicate "fill" or "lead in" or "big fill" rather than trying to be more specific. I haven't had occasion to write in brass kick cues in jazz charts, but would simply make them smaller and above the staff using regular noteheads. I use x noteheads (or diamonds for half notes or whole notes) for hi-hat (top space--I know that many others use the 2nd space going back to old-time march notation) and for crash or ride cymbals (above the staff, on 2 or 3 different levels when appropriate). For auxiliary unpitched percussion I simply choose a line or space that looks reasonable, high pitch up and low pitch down, label the part and stay consistent, and use either normal or x noteheads as seems to look right. I know, kind of a hodgepodge, and there may well be standard ways that differ from this. In fact I'd bet that there is more than one standard, and that they don't always agree! But I've never had drummers tell me that they were confused. I developed these habits writing commercial show charts. I don't do anything different for orchestra or concert band, except for puzzling over the most efficient way to lay out the parts, since it's impossible to predict how many percussionists there will be, and the more parts on the page the more page turns. I'm sure my son, the percussionist, would have definite preferences. For pit work the choices are one player doing it all or one player on set and a 2nd on everything else, but that depends on who they're going to hire and on how specialized the aux perc gets. John John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:John.Howell@;vt.edu) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
