Percussion and drum kit notation

Percussion notation is entirely instrument-selection driven — there’s no separate “make this a percussion staff” setting. Picking a percussion preset from the Instruments panel (Ctrl+I) sets the staff line count, clef, and a percussion map (which pad maps to which notehead, staff position, and MIDI sound) all at once.

Single-line vs. drum kit

• A single-instrument preset (Snare Drum, Triangle, Woodblock, …) gives a one-line staff — one instrument, one line, the same way a simple percussion clef staff has always worked.
• The Drum Kit preset gives a standard 5-line staff where each position and notehead shape represents a different piece: normal noteheads for skins (snare, toms, bass drum), an x notehead for cymbals and hi-hats. Only one generic “Drum Kit” preset exists today — there’s no separate Rock/Jazz kit variant yet.

Note entry

Entering notes on a percussion staff uses a drum pad in place of the usual pitch letters (A–G) — press the pad for the sound you want instead of a letter name. Everything else about entering notes (durations, dots, rests — see Entering notes) works the same as any other staff.

The percussion map is editable

Each preset’s pad-to-notehead mapping is a real, editable table — the Instruments panel’s Percussion Map lets you add, remove, reorder, or reset entries (pad key, icon, name, notehead, staff position, MIDI sound) if a preset’s defaults don’t match what you’re notating.

Tips

• Voice separation for a kit (cymbals/snare/toms in one voice, kick/hi-hat pedal in another, stems up vs. down) is manual today — assign it yourself the normal way (see Working with multiple voices).
• Reach for notehead shapes directly (not through an instrument preset) when you need a percussion-style glyph — X, diamond, and so on — on a note that isn’t on a percussion staff at all, like a ghost note in a guitar part.