RE: Drum notation

[Jeff Henrikson]

> Have any of you got any ideas of how to do drumnotation nicely?

I tried doing drum notation once and then decided not to.  Here's as far as I 
got:

dr  = \notes \transpose c' {
        \clef bass;
        \time 6/8;

        <
        \context Voice = HANDS {
        \property Voice.verticalDirection = \up
        <
        \context Thread = RIDE {
                \property Thread.noteHeadStyle = "cross"
                b4 b4 b8 b8 r8 b8 r8 b8 r8 b8
        }
        \context Thread = CLICK {
                \property Thread.noteHeadStyle = "cross"
                s4 e4 s4 s4. e4
        }
        \context Thread = TOMS {
                \property Thread.noteHeadStyle = ""
                s2 g8 g8
        }
        >
        }

(One measure of a bembe hand pattern.)  This was with an old release that 
didn't have the push property functionality, and stuff
like this started making my scores really slowly, so you might want to change 
that.  The example may solve or give some hints as to
getting what you want in the way of noteheads.

One of the reasons that I stopped with this is because to do hands and feet 
required having a thread-specific property to position
the height of rests, which was not introduced until I requested it (or perhaps 
just before?).  In any case I kept with my old lily
version because the new one at the time crashed on my machine and because it 
would have probably broken all my scores also.  I'll
upgrade sometime and try it again, but I don't have a lot of interest these 
days.

> Is it possible to include such information in the pitchnames so that I
> could just do {hhc8 hho hhc hho} to get X'ed notes with +'s and o's
> above?

. . .

> a) Is it nessesary to copy-and-paste the drumscores like this?

These two points fundamentally point to the issue of CHI with a compiler, and I 
think your search for something likeable may be
arduous here.  For one thing, drum staff lines are not nearly the only thing 
which necessitates copy-pasting in mudela.  For
example: dynamics, pitches when pitch is unison, rhythm when rhythm is unison, 
text markings . . . the list goes on.  Not to say
that there are not small improvements in the language to be made, but the basic 
issue is not really any fault of mudela.  Really
it's an artifact of trying to embed music notation in a text file.  The only 
"right answer" that I see is to use some sort of smart
GUI that untangles some of the mudela structure, but I have yet to write up a 
convincing argument for this with concrete examples.
In the meantime I just mark up a lot of printed .ly output with pencil and try 
not to feel too oppressed by the process, being
thankful that I at least don't have to deal with Finale or extract and 
transpose parts by hand any more.


Jeff Henrikson

> -----Original Message-----
> From: address@hidden
> [mailto:address@hidden Behalf Of Rune Zedeler
> Sent: Sunday, February 11, 2001 2:42 PM
> To: address@hidden
> Subject: Drum notation
>
>
> Hi there!
> Have any of you got any ideas of how to do drumnotation nicely?
> I have made a file, drumspaper.ly with drumnotes as they are to be
> printed on paper.
> I will then make a file, mididrums.ly, with the same drumnames and the
> pitches as they are in the general midi drums.
>
> I have a number of problems, though.
>
> a) Is it nessesary to copy-and-paste the drumscores like this?
>
> \include "drumspaper.ly"
> paperdrums = \notes {bd4 sn8 bd bd4 sn} %copy
> \include "drumsmidi.ly"
> mididrums = \notes {bd4 sn8 bd bd4 sn}  %paste :-(
> \score{ \notes {\paperdrums} \paper{} }
> \score{ \notes {\mididrums} \midi{} }
>
> b) when typesetting highhats it is convention to use f'^\stopped for
> closed highhat and f'^\open for open highat.
> Further more, the different drums are to be typeset with different types
> of noteheads.
> Is it possible to include such information in the pitchnames so that I
> could just do {hhc8 hho hhc hho} to get X'ed notes with +'s and o's
> above?
> If not, what shall/can I do, then?
>
> -Rune
>
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