Drums: How to put two snare drums on one stave?

• May 23, 2024 - 15:43

Hi,
I hope this is easy, but despite some time searching, I can't seem to work out how to do this. Maybe I'm just not searching for the right question?

I want to enter a snare drum part - but instead of both hands being on the same line, I want the left hand on one line and the right hand on another.

This would be the same as two separate snare drum parts, one near the top of the stave, one lower down.

Musescore does this anyway with, say, snare and bass drum. Snare is voice 1 and BD is voice two. I can right the part out this way, but if I try and change the BD to a snare, it automatically becomes P1 and merges with the other P1 part. Should I be trying to change a snare sound to p2? Or changing a p2 instrument to become another snare?

Thanks.

Comments

• May 24, 2024 - 21:14

Yes, that looks just like what I'm after.
Is it possible for both hands to play the same note? This is important.

Please can you tell me how you did this?

I added two snare drums to my score - but it created two separate staffs, which isn't what I wanted.
Your picture looks exactly what I'm after,

Thanks

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• May 26, 2024 - 04:56
  1. Right-click on the snare staff and select "Staff/Part properties"
  2. Click on "Advanced Style Properties"
  3. Increase "Lines" parameter to two. (Your barlines will look small, but we can fix that later if you care about how they look)
  4. Right-click again on the snare staff and select "Edit Drumset"
  5. Click on the sound numbered "40" and give it a name (Snare Left/Right, I don't know which hand is on the bottom)
  6. Change the "Staff line" to 2.
  7. Add a shortcut key (I chose C which is to the left of B on the computer keyboard)
  8. Input your music. Now that all your barlines are there, you can easily edit all of them at the same time:
  9. Right-click on any barline and choose "Select" –> "Similar." They should all be highlighted.
  10. In the "Properties" menu on the side of MuseScore, look for "Barlines." Set "Span from" to -3. Set "Span to" to 3.

Let me know if anything doesn't work or if you don't understand something.

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• Jun 2, 2024 - 19:48

Hi,

Many thanks for these detailed instructions. Apologies for not replying sooner but I have been away for a few days. (Been celebrating. May 26th was actually my birthday, so thanks for the 'present' ;)

This is almost what I want - although I am struggling with finding where the Barline 'span' is adjusted - I can't find it in "Properties" - it only gives me the option to insert bars. I've tried finding it myself in Format>Style>Barlines but none of the options offer span? I expect it has moved somewhere. I'll keep looking but I'm struggling to find it at the moment. I'm currently on Musescore 4.2.1 but I will be upgrading it very shortly to the latest version.

Reply

• Jun 4, 2024 - 12:10

Hi,

Thanks for the reply - but I am still stuck. I expect I am being stupid and can't see the wood for the trees or something... but I just can't find it.

I highlight a bar - a blue rectangle appears around it suggesting it is selected.
I click on the 'properties' tab which is over on the top left of the screen, along with 'Palettes' and 'Instruments' and the rest.
In the drop down - At the top is 'General', then 'Bar', then 'Notation'. No 'Barline' and nothing in 'Bar' other than 'Add bars'.

I am assuming that either I need to add options to the Properties Tab - I know you can click on the three dots "..." in the Palette Tab to add things, but I can't see any way to do this in 'Properties' - or I am looking at the wrong 'Properties'? I've tried a right mouse click and selecting properties from there. This displays things in a different way with a few more options such as 'Staves' and 'Bar duration' - but still no 'Barline'.
Can't find anything else in any of the menus.

I attach a screenshot with the palette tab, highlighted bar and bar properties opened from a mouse click.

Anyone know what I am doing wrong?

Thanks

Attachment Size
image_2024-06-04_120815126.png 66.56 KB

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