Drum sounds in score without a drum staff? Gliss question also...
A common trope in 19th C. banjo music is to use the head of the banjo as a drum (well...it is a drum). This usually shows up as X-head notes with text to "strike head" or "tap head" or whatever...and is usually a single tap or sometimes a triplet or two. I know of one piece where the direction is to strike the top of the bridge (I give it a fair wallop to get a ringing BUM PA BUM).
What I would like to do is to hear that in the playback. Can I assign a drum sound to those notes in the notation or TAB (or both)? How?
Question two: glissando. How do I get it to output a smooth slide rather than a series of chromatic steps? I'm writing for a fretless banjo...
Comments
1) Eg like that, more or less, I don't know what sound you expect exactly ? _Clog.mscz
Ie: add a staff for drums, enter the necessary notes, and then make this staff invisible in the Instruments dialog (shortcut "I"). And change the noteheads in standard staff (in Noteheads palette) and Tab staff (via shortcut Shift + X) . Without forget to disable playback (in Inspector) of these notes in standard/TAB staffs.
2) About glissando: currently not implemented with the wished result. See the feature request : #127341: Add Glissando playback style portamento
In reply to 1) Eg like that, more or… by cadiz1
Ah. Thank you for the drum staff example. That helps me a lot. I'll simply choose one of the drum sounds that suits me.
Although I'm a decent enough player, it is nice to provide a stricter example of what a given tune should sound like. I have had students (when I was teaching) who could only learn by ear, so I like to be able to provide an mp3 file for such folk. Also, most banjo players cannot sing or follow notation, so having an mp3 allows them to preview the piece.
In reply to Ah. Thank you for the drum… by madsmith
You also wrote:
I'm writing for a fretless banjo...
And so...
Try using a bend from the Articulations & Ornaments palette which sounds smoother than the chromatic glissando (but it's only good for up to 3 whole tones).
Meanwhile, until the feature request comes through, you can 'fake it' and use a bend when making mp3 audio..
See:
https://musescore.org/en/handbook/bends
Have a listen:
Banjo.mscz
(Go to Edit -> Instruments to show the hidden staves.)
In reply to You also wrote:… by Jm6stringer
Ok, I see what you've done there. Thank you. These examples help a lot. I need to slide from B to E, so 5 semi-tones (P4). Big bass slides were a very common feature in the period, often taking up the bass string up a full octave.