Tutorial No 13.    Entering drum and percussion patterns onto the staff screen

The MIDI system, under the General MIDI standard, uses channel 10 for percussion instruments. Since these "instruments" have no pitch, MIDI uses the pitches of the notes as a code for the percussion instruments.  Some kind of percussion instrument is assigned to every pitch between D#1 (3 octaves below the D# above middle C) and E6 (2 octaves above the E above middle C).

However, there are really only about 9 or 10 MIDI percussion sounds in common use, and these are all in octaves 2 and 3, which are presented on the bass clef in staff notation.  The following table lists these percussion "instruments", with their corresponding pitches.

Pitch Percussion Instrument Comments MIDI note number
F#2 Closed hi-hat Soft, muted cymbal. Used on 1st and 3rd beat in jazz swing and easy listening ballad styles. 42
C#2 Side stick Emphatic sharp drum. Used on the off-beats, i.e. the 2nd and 4th beats in jazz swing and easy-listening ballad styles. 37
Bb2 Open hi-hat Added for occasional variety, at 3/4 of 3rd beat perhaps. 46
Eb3 Ride cymbal Used in a variation of standard swing, on every beat, and also with dotted quaver + semi-quaver rhythms on 2nd and 3rd beats. 51
D2 Acoustic snare drum Used for contrast in bridge passages. 38
C#3 Crash cymbal Loud cymbal, used in bridge passages, or at the end. 49
C3 Hi tom The 3 toms are often used as triplet rhythms, in bridge passages, alternating between hi, mid and lo for contrast 48
F2 Lo tom   41
A2 Mid tom   45
  1. To create a drum pattern, from the main MENU, Edit -> Staff View
  2. Click the button labelled  Start a New Tune.  Set an appropriate time signature, usually 4/4 for jazz and popular modern tunes. 
  3. Put a tick in the check box labelled Show guidelines for each beat. This will place faint yellow lines on each beat, to make it easier to place notes accurately.
  4. Click on the treble clef at far left of the staff, to change it to a bass clef.  Click on the time signature, just to the right of the bass clef sign, to bring up a dialog box. At bottom right of this, set the MIDI channel to 10 using the up spinner button.
  5. Now you are ready to enter notes onto the staff, using the table above to find the pitch corresponding to your desired percussion instrument.  Left-click on the staff at the exact vertical position for the pitch, and the exact horizontal position for the timing.
  6. To convert a note into a sharp or flat, right-click on it, to bring up a dialog box, then, to raise pitch a semi-tone (i.e. to make a sharp) click on the up-spin-button beside the pitch. To lower it, for a flat, use the down-spin-button.
  7. To listen to your results, click the Play button on the Playbar at the foot of the screen.