Drum Input Palette should follow standardised drum notation

[RobFog]

Premise: Drum Input Palette should follow standardised drum notation, i.e. Weinberg's book Guide to standardized drum notation

While drum notation is not entirely standardised – I know I frequently encounter different variations in lesson books, transcriptions, etc. –, Norman Weinberg's book Guide to standardized drum notation arguably reflects common practice.

Scorewriters Sibelius (Sibelius Reference Guide, Version 2023.11, p. 379), Finale ("Percussion" in Finale's user manual ) and MuseScore (Comment by former lead developer "lasconic") have all stated they intend to follow Weinberg.

However, many aspects of MuseScore's drum notation deviate from standard notation. I will show this for notation of drums and cymbals through the drum input palette.

Drums

Bass drum and snare drum

MuseScore's Drum Input Palette follows the percussion map of the General MIDI Specification. The General MIDI Specification defines two snare drums, "Acoustic Snare" and "Electric Snare", and two bass drums, "Acoustic Bass Drum" and "Bass Drum 1". MuseScore notates both snare drums and both bass drums identically, following Weinberg's notation for the snare and for the first bass drum. It lacks Weinberg's second bass drum.

Current MuseScore

Weinberg

Changes necessary

• A second bass drum needs to be available.

Toms

The General MIDI specification defines six toms und MuseScore's Drum Input Palette names them „High Tom“, „Hi Mid Tom“, Low Mid Tom“, „Low Tom“, „High Floor Tom“ und „Low Floor Tom“, in accordance with the specification.

However, due to how MuseScore's drum input palette places the toms in the staff it only facilitates notating four different toms. Oddly, the fifth tom, „High Floor Tom“, is assigned to voice 2.

Weinberg has specified notation of up to ten toms. If MuseScore's drum input palette remains tied to the General MIDI specification, we should allow users to write up to six toms as it facilitates.

Current MuseScore

Weinberg

Changes necessary

• It should be possible to notate six different toms.
• All toms should be assigned to voice 1 by default.

Cymbals

Work in progress

Implementation

Changes to MuseScore's default drum input need to be very carefully considered.

Relevant thoughts and questions that come my mind:

• How will changes we make now affect scores written in older versions of MuseScore?
• MuseScore's drum input palette appears to be tied to the percussion map of the General MIDI Specification. Does it facilitate standard notation in its entirety?
• How will MuseScore drum notation defaults affect interchange of scores between different scorewriters through MusicXML?