• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

John Hinchey

Nashville Music Producer, Composer and Arranger

  • About
    • Clients
    • My Process
  • Services
  • Album Credits
  • Listen
  • Notes On Notes
    • AVID
    • Learning software
    • Music Notation
    • Music Prep
    • News
    • Plugins
    • Sibelius
    • Trouble Shooting Software
    • Tutorials
  • Contact

October 6, 2010 By John Hinchey Leave a Comment

Notes On Notes Mailbox: Sibelius-Drum cues in a flute part

Here’s a question from an email I recently received related to my last series of blog posts.

“Hi John,
Thanks very much for your posts on Sibelius 6!  I’m trying to figure out how to write drum kicks in a flute part (above the staff).  I found the Make Pitches Constant plugin, but I’m actually trying to just add the drum kicks above the existing notes, not replace them. If it’s not too much of a hassle, can you please advise how to do this? Thanks again,-Bob”

Drums cues in other parts

There is more than one way to do this. The direct way would be to notate the flute line in voice 2 (or move it from voice 1 to voice 2) and then notate the drum kicks in voice 1, filter voice 1 and change the notes and rests to cue sized (keypad 2-enter key). The Make Pitches Constant plugin does not have the option of cue sized or small notes, so it’s not a good choice for this.

But there is a plugin that will speed this up a bit. You will need to download and install the Make Pitches Constant-Drums plugin I mentioned in a previous Sibelius Plug-In post.

Let’s assume you’ve got the flute line notated in voice 1, select the flute bar where you want the cues and go to Edit>Voice>Swap 1 & 2 (or use the keystroke shift V).

 

Select a bar that has the rhythm you want as your cue and go to Edit>Filter>Voices>Voice 1 (or use the keystroke shift opt command 1).

 

You’ve now selected just voice 1 and you can copy that into the bar with the flute line.  You can use copy and paste or the opt click method of copying. You end up with this:

 

Select the bar and go to to Plugins and find Make Pitches Constant-Drums, for drum set cues you don’t change anything but in this case uncheck the box next to “Fill selection with notes of the following properties”  so it looks like the example below.  This tells the plugin to leave voice 2 as is.

 

Click OK and you’ll end up with this.  Notice you’ve got the small notes and the rest have moved up and out of the way of the flute line.

 

One note, the next time you go to use Make Pitches Constant-Drums that box will still be unchecked. You will need to check it if you want to use the plugin for drum set cues with slashes. When you quit Sibelius and restart, the plugin will reset to it’s default setting.

Bob, thanks for reading my blog and I hope this answers your question.

Hinch

Filed Under: Learning software, Music Notation, Music Prep, Notes On Notes Mailbox, Sibelius, Tutorials, Uncategorized Tagged With: Drum charts in Sibelius, Learning software, Music Notation, Sibelius

John Hinchey

John Hinchey is a Producer, Composer and Arranger and expert in digital notation software. He has produced, written, and/or arranged thousands of professional charts and shows for musicians, singers, songwriters, cruise lines, theme parks, high schools, colleges, etc. As a speaker, he presents to groups and organizations on using the Avid Sibelius software. In the online world, he provides tutoring on the Sibelius notation software and helps musicians adapt to the changing needs of the digital world as it applies to music.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

What are you looking for?

Categories

Footer

Expand your knowledge of Music Notation software with my newsletter

Receive advice on improving your digital music notation chops, evolving the way you transcribe and meeting the needs of the musicians who will play your music. You can unsubscribe in one click and I will never share your email address.


    Blog Updates

    You can follow all my posts by subscribing to my RSS feed or signing up to my email newsletter above.

    Social Updates

    I post a lot to Facebook. I also have a Twitter account which I post considerably less to.

    About John Hinchey

    John Hinchey helps his clients' projects sound beautiful with the notes he puts on paper.

    John Hinchey is a producer, arranger/composer and speaker. He helps musical artists (such as Martina McBride), production companies (for cruise lines and theme parks), and independent singer/songwriters with musical arrangements, composition, music prep and trombone. In addition to arranging for Sting's Rainforest Benefit Concerts, he has also produced, arranged and/or composed music for the 2004 Democratic Convention, Norwegian Cruise Lines, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra, the critically acclaimed CD "Rewiring Genesis: A Tribute To 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" and more.

    Contact

    Give John a call:
    615.397.3675
    Email John:
    john@nullhincheymusic.com
    Connect on social media:

    Copyright © 2023 John Hinchey. All rights reserved · Website design/development by Saxon Creative

    • About
    • Services
    • Album Credits
    • Listen
    • Notes On Notes
    • Contact