Question about notating different rhythms in different drum parts
Hello all!
I'm fairly new to Musescore and just started exploring it so I can write some tracks for drumset. I'm having trouble trying to figure out how to get the program to enter dotted rhythms in the snare drum part and straight eighth notes in the hi-hat part. For example, after I added the hi-hat line, I went to adding the snare line and when I did the note input, it tried changing the hi-hat line instead. I tried looking on Youtube and found a video that shows it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iguDQRYfSw
But the person who made it goes by so fast and there is no audio so it is impossible to follow the step-by-step process. Could someone explain to me how to do that (using what keys or shortcuts) in a step-by-step way? The help would be highly appreciated because I really like this program so far. Thank you!
Comments
Welcome, see: https://musescore.org/en/handbook/voices
Buona musica!
P.S. Here you can find (listen and download) many examples
https://musescore.com/sheetmusic?instruments=3
Do you mean hi-hat played with sticks as opposed to the foot? The normal way to notate that would be to use the *same* voice as snare drum (everything played with hands in voice 1, stems up; everything played with feet in voice 2, stems down). In which case, you'd simply alter how the rhythms are written. There is no course no difference between a dotted quarter for snare and an eighth, so don't worry about notating the snare using a dotted quarter just make it an eighth. As long as it shows on the right beat, it's fine. Or if you mean dotted eighth & sixteenth, you could similarly enter the second hi-hat eighth as a sixteenth.
In other words, make it look like this:
(the first measure shows the snare with the equivalent of dotted quarter eighth, the second shows the equivalent of dotted eighth sixteenth).
That way everything is still notated in its normal voice, and voice 2 remains available for footwork.
In reply to Do you mean hi-hat played by Marc Sabatella
Hello!
Yes, I am talking about hi-hat played with the hand (straight eighth notes) and dotted eighth rhythms mixed with sixteenth notes on snare. I noticed that the snare parts have to be part of voice 1 with the hi-hat (which I wish wasn't the case). I noticed that when I put the parts I wanted on different staves, I was able to use the rhythms I wanted for a groove (see the attached screenshot). Basically I want to be able to put all those parts on one staff together with those exact rhythms.
Any advice on how to get this groove on the same staff would be appreciated! Many thanks, Marc!
In reply to Hello! Yes, I am talking by Rhythmmistress
Snare drums don't *have* to be in the same voice as the hi-hat - that's just the standard way of notating things in most countries. If you are experimenting with your own non-standard notation, or if you live in one of the countries that typically uses a different approach, you are welcome to customize the drum set to put either the snare or hi-hat into another voice.
But again, in most parts of the world, doing it the way I did *is* the right way. Notice my rhythm *is* the same exact rhythm as yours, it just is notated differently so that it can fit in only one voice, allowing you to put the bass drum in voice 2. If you want to try your experimental method, you'll probably need three voices, which is going to be more confusing to read, but maybe you have some idea of how you want to do that. If you can show a picture - hand-drawn or whatever - of what you wish to achieve, we can show you how to do it in MuseScore.
In reply to Hello! Yes, I am talking by Rhythmmistress
Since the example given is based on Snare and Kick, I suggest "B" and "C".
![Clipboard01b.png]( "Clipboard01b.png")
In reply to Since the example given is by Ziya Mete Demircan
In this particular example, it just happens that the kick and hi hat are never used at the same time, so it would be possible for this measure alone to let hi hat and kick share voice 2. That is what is shown in "B" above. It's unlikely that approach would work throughout the piece - at least, not without employing the same technique I used to combine two different rhythms into single voice. So you'd end up needing hi hat in voice 1 in some places in the score, voice 2 elsehwere. This inconsistency is not good for readability, which is why I don't recommend deviating from the standard approach of combining all "hand" (as opposed to "foot") instruments in the same voice.
For the record, here is how the posted measure looks using the standard approach that most publishers would normally employ:
Note it combines all three lines with absolutely no rhythms changed whatsoever and absolutely no note moved into any voice other than its standard voice. So it requires only two voices, and yet remains readable.