Hi Darcy, I see your point, and perhaps from a purely pedagogical standpoint it helps to see everything line up in the same layer. However, most if not all drummers I know prefer and are used to seeing the bass drum and foot hi-hat stems down as a separate layer. That way they can see the rhythm of the bass drum as a separate entity and hear how it interacts with the bass, etc. All the other drums and cymbals, including floor toms and snare drum, are stems up in another layer. This preference was confirmed by my friend Bernie Dresel who is a very active drummer and percussionist in the LA music scene.
I also understand Geoff's point about minimizing rests, but I think the overriding principles are firstly the clarity of the independent rhythms (so, for example, you can see the snare drum clearly playing backbeats separate from what the bass drum is doing) and secondly the ergonomic logic of "feet-down, hands-up" like the separate hands of a one-staff keyboard part. Hope this helps, Brian On 9/28/11 3:49 AM, Darcy James Argue wrote: > Hi Brian, > > Actually, my argument is for everything all in the same layer. This way, any > drums or cymbals that are played simultaneously share the same stem. It's > definitely preferred by every drummer I've talked to. Chris mentioned "Modern > Drummer" -- this is how they do it. Here's an example: > > http://www.drumsallday.com/wp-content/uploads/md-gogo.jpg > > In some rare cases, the above method isn't clear or isn't possible, in which > case I might break out temporarily to cymbals up, drums down. > > Cheers, > > - DJA _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
