To create a percussion staff with a customized
percussion layout
- Click the Staff Tool .
- Double-click a staff. The Staff Attributes
dialog box appears.
- Near the clef display, click Select. Double-click
on one of the percussion staves.
- Choose one of the three pre-defined staves
from the Staff popup menu. Choose from Standard 5-line, 1-line
with Full Barline, 1-line with Short Barline. Or, if you’re setting up
a custom staff, choose Other to display the Staff Setup dialog box. After
you create a custom staff, click OK to return to the Staff Attributes
dialog box. For details about setting up a custom staff, refer to Staff Setup dialog box.
- Under Independent Elements, click Notehead
Font if it’s not already selected. The checkbox becomes selected.
- Click Select (to the right of Notehead Font).
- Choose Maestro Percussion (or JazzPerc) 24
point as the font for percussion noteheads on this staff, then click OK.
Or, choose an alternate font that contains all the notehead characters
that you want to use for percussion.
Tip: If you want to
use the same notehead font for all staves, it’s quicker to set the notehead
font in Document Options-Fonts, rather than to set the notehead font individually
for each staff.
- Choose Percussion from the Notation Style popup menu
if it’s not already selected. (To change a staff back to standard
notation, choose Standard from the Notation Style popup menu.)
- Click Select (to the right of the Notation
Style popup menu).
- Click Create if you want to create a completely
new percussion layout containing note definitions for a percussion staff.
Most likely you’ll want to edit an existing layout that appears in the list
box. If so, click the percussion layout, then click Edit. In either
case, the Percussion Layout Designer dialog box appears.
- Select the note you want to edit from the list on the left. Or, click the + button in the lower right to add a new note.
- For Note Type, click the popup menu and choose the desired Note Type. Each Note Type represents a percussion instrument.
- Enter a Staff Position, counted in steps from
middle C, for your percussion notehead. You can click and drag the handle to choose the staff position.
- Click the Select button next to Closed/Half/Whole/Double-Whole Notehead. Finale opens the Symbol selection dialog box
in the Notehead font. For Closed Notehead, select the notehead you want
to appear on quarter notes or smaller notes. Do the same for half, whole or double whole notes.
- Continue selecting and editing notes in the
list box until you've made all the changes that you want.
Tip: Occasionally you may wish to notate more than one percussion
instrument on the same line or space on the staff. This is easy to do
in the Percussion Layout Designer dialog box. Simply select different notes
from the list box, then drag them so they share
the same Staff Position.
- Click Done. Finale returns you to the
Percussion Layout Selection dialog box.
- Click Select and OK. Any notes that
appeared in the staff will be remapped.
For percussion MIDI playback, see To setup playback for a percussion staff.