I am looking at "Guide to Standardized Drumset Notation" by Norman Weinberg. I have found this to be a very good guide.
I really dislike the slash notation or the repeat bar approach in most cases because that means the drummer has to start at the chart to count how many measures before the next break. I could help out by numbering the repeated measures, but this still results in a 4 page chart when 1 or 2 pages would do. Weinberg agrees that the MM rest style should not be used. But on page 35, he provides an example of the solution I think would be perfect in many cases. The first measure of the section is shown explicitly of course. What follows is a big measure that has no notes and bold text "Play 15 Bars". And following the bold text is a squiggle line that takes you to the next double bar. That's the kind of symbology I am looking for. I should mention that I actually have the drum parts in all the measures for playback purposes and I would really prefer not to have to maintain a separate staff just for printing purposes. That is how I got to the Z staff style and MM rest. Experimenting with some of the ideas on this thread, I cloned the normal Z staff style and turned off the display of rests. It turns out that also hides MM rests. I can then create MM rests as usual and in the sections where I have applied my style, it just looks like one wide empty measure. I can then add an expression for "Play xx Bars". I'll have to do that final editing in the linked part, but that won't be too bad. Usually there will only be about 8 of these markings in an arrangement, and most often they will be either 7 or 15 bars. I'm not sure I want to deal with the squiggle line. The text should be adequate, especially if it put in in an opaque enclosure and overlay it on the staff itself. Thanks, everybody, for the ideas. On 1/23/2015 10:11 AM, Robert Patterson wrote: > This may be a pain, but what I might do is (after creating the multimeasure > rest), enter a note orrest in the first bar of it. (It can be a hidden.) > That causes the multimeas rest to disappear and you can then make it look > however you like. I do this for TACET passages where I don't want to show > the number of bars rest. > > On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 9:06 AM, Craig Parmerlee <[email protected]> > wrote: > >> In most of the big band charts I write, for the drummer I write a >> measure or two with the suggest beat pattern, then turn the rest of the >> measures into staff style Z so they will appear as a multi-measure rest >> up to the next double bar. If there are any important punches, I will >> typically show those measures with slash notation and write the horn >> rhythms in notes above the staff, letting the drummer figure out how >> best to play that. If there is an exact part I need played, I will show >> those measures. For example, there may be a particular tom-tom riff or >> there may be a place where drums hit on 1 and then drop out. I show all >> those measures explicitly. >> >> But my question is about the sections where the drummer is just carrying >> along. I show those as multi-measure rests and put the indication >> "(Continue)" above the MM rest. This gives a really clean, compact part >> and allows the drummer to play more artistically instead of trying to >> read a very cluttered chart. But there is an ambiguity with the MM >> rests. I am using the same look whether the drummer is continuing to >> play a pattern or whether the drums are out for a section. My >> "(Continue)" marking attempts to clarify that, but I wonder how others >> deal with this. >> >> I think what I'd really like is two different visual styles of MM rest >> -- one for playing and one for resting. >> _______________________________________________ >> Finale mailing list >> [email protected] >> https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale >> >> To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: >> [email protected] >> > _______________________________________________ > Finale mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale > > To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: > [email protected] > > _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: [email protected]
