First, a quick setup procedure:

MAKING A DRUM CLEF IN THE SCORE EDITOR:

1) Move the cursor into the desired staff.
2) Choose Display -> Track from the menu bar at the top of the screen
3) On the Clef option, select 'Drum'.  This will change the clef in the 
   Score Editor to a Drum Clef. 



MAKING YOUR MIDI KEYBOARD PLAY DRUMS:

Most sound cards have their drum sounds assigned to MIDI channel 10. 
To make your keyboard play the drum sounds on channel 10:

1) Select Options -> MIDI Thru
2) For "MIDI Channel 1 to:" (what most keyboards transmit on) choose 
   MIDI channel 10 from the drop down menu to the right. 
3) Make sure the associated radio button is set to 'On' and then click OK.



MAPPING YOUR MOUSE TO MIDI CHANNEL 10
 
1) Select Window -> Track Sheet from the menu bar at the top of the screen.
2) Find the row that corresponds to your drum track by finding 'Drum' under
   the "Clef" column. 
3) Under 'Mouse+Faders' for that row, select 'Channel 10'.
4) You're done! Now you can switch back to the Score Editor.



CREATING DRUM NOTATION

The easiest way to create drum notation in Music Write is to use a MIDI 
keyboard and play the parts in on MIDI Channel 10.  The keys you play will 
be sensed by the program and will produce the proper notation on the score.

Using the pencil tool, however, is more complex.



WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

First, it's important to make the distinction between how drum sounds are
displayed in standard drum notation (for a human drummer to read) and the 
"key map" that associates General MIDI drum patches with notes in standard
notation.

The standard Percussion Staff is written so that each instrument in a trap
drum set will have its own line or space on the staff.  

General MIDI does not provide a way for GM synthesizers to "read" standard
drum notation.  Instead, GM maps drums to MIDI Channel 10.  Each of the 128
Percussion patches in the GM percussion patch set has a corresponding note 
on the keyboard.  In other words, the percussion patches are "mapped" to 
the keys on a piano keyboard; Middle C corresponds to a High Bongo sound, 
and C an octave below that corresponds to a High Mid Tom sound.  

Music Write displays drum sounds as they are mapped on MIDI Channel 10 
in Treble Clef, until you tell it to display them in standard drum notation
by choosing the Drum Clef (Display -> Track -> Clef -> Drum). 

Some notes as written in Music Write's drum notation can represent more than
one drum sound.  For example, the third space in the Drum Clef represents 
a snare drum, but it is possible to assign that note to an Acoustic Snare
patch (D Natural below the Bass Clef in standard notation) or an Electric
Snare (E Natural below the Bass Clef). 

 

DRAWING IN THE NOTES:

1) In Music Write, select the Pencil tool in the Score Editor.

2) Click the mouse on the drum staff with the left button, holding it down
   (don't let go just yet).  This will create a note-head that you can 
   drag up and down.  Notice how the staff is displaying and playing the 
   different notes you are "mousing" over.  These are the 128 percussion 
   sounds being displayed in Bass Clef standard notation 
   (even though the clef remains displayed as a Drum Clef). 

3) As you drag the note-head up and down, you will notice that none of the 
   displayed notes are sharps or flats.  This means that some of the drum 
   patches are not being auditioned.  To audition a drum patch that is mapped
   to an accidental, first drag the note-head to an adjacent note. Then press 
   the up arrow on your computer's keyboard to go the next higher chromatic 
   step, or press the down arrow for the next lower chromatic step, before 
   letting go of the mouse. 

4) When you find the desired drum sound, simply let go of the left mouse
   button.  You'll see that the note-head "snaps" to the proper location for 
   that particular drum sound in standard drum notation (in the Drum Clef). 

   To make this a little easier to deal with, we made a Music Write document
   called "Drum Notation – Bass Clef : Drum Clef".  You can use this as a 
   guide when converting drum sounds in Bass Clef notation to Drum Clef. 
   It's available for download from our FTP (file section of this program)
   under the filename: drumnote.zip
   The filename after the extraction is "drumnote.mwk"



THE DRUM NOTATION CONTROL SCREEN

If you wish to fine tune your settings, use the Drum Notation screen.

* Choose Options -> Drum Notation from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

This shows the drum sounds as notated in Bass Clef running along the 
bottom of the screen. 

The drum sounds' corresponding MIDI note numbers are displayed 
in the center of the screen.

  

The top of the screen displays how the drum sounds will be notated in 
the Drum Clef.  In this area, you can alter the relationship between the
note-head's location on the Percussion Staff and the GM drum sound that 
will be played. Click and drag the note-head up and down to change its 
location on the Percussion Staff.  

Accents and Note Heads can be altered using the menu to the right.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The following applies only to the "Professional" and the "Maestro" versions
of Music Write programs: 


  RESTS:
  ------

  While you are transcribing your drums, you may find measures that have 
  more rests than you desire. To suppress rests, go to the menu bar at 
  the top of the screen, select Display - > Bar, and enter 'No' under 
  the field 'Display Rests'.
 
  Similarly, you can suppress rests for the entire track by going to 
  Display -> Track and entering 'No' to the Display Rests' field there.

______________________________________________________________________________