Fixing Bad Percussion Writing (part 3)

[@nafspark]

That timpani part looked like someone used software to try to transcribe an actual roll someone played but didn't quantize things correctly.

[@welldangbroo7921]

*Imagine actually reading that original timpani roll and hitting every note as written*

[@WorkingStorage]

MuseScore doesn’t like tieing percussion. I use “slurs” (S). You can then adjust what notes are “slurred” by double click the tie and doing CTRL + left or right to adjust as needed. Hope this helps for next time

[@JohnathanWhitehorn]

wym? musescore has no problem tieing perc, just use the tie button or I have the shortcut as the equal sign.

[@Porrimgaming413]

You shouldn't use slurs, they're very insensitive

[@WorkingStorage]

@@JohnathanWhitehorn Example is when he tries using it. It mostly gets funky when you try and make one to show letting something ring but there's other stuff playing in the measure. Mostly when writing for drumset

[@JohnathanWhitehorn]

@@WorkingStorage the use of different voices helps so much, especially for clarity and aesthetic. the ties work and the stem directions are separated. you don’t need more than 2 voices for anything

[@christopherflores892]

i also use slurs. NI-

[@riasg-b9w]

Video 13 of commenting until EMC makes a front ensemble out of spocks

[@lukeevans5676]

spockpani

[@mogmason6920]

Spocks and Flubs

[@gamerbtw7469]

Keep going!!!

[@bennettwilliams_]

Spockset

[@bennettwilliams_]

Auxiliary Spock Rack

[@the_doug_digital]

The amount of people in the comments helping Eric out with suggestions is very nice and honestly really telling of his KZbin community

[@Deageke]

4:00 you can add a shortcut for sticking by going to Edit>Preferences>Shortcuts and finding it in the menu as "Add Sticking"

[@Deageke]

Also at 10:20 you can use a slur there instead so it'll go to 2 different notes and still pretty much look the same

[@ironmatic1]

You can also just use the dropdown once then use the right arrow key to go to the next note. Just don't make any mistakes or you have to use the dropdown again.

[@senor_sensei]

CTRL-L to use Lyrics also works as well. I prefer to use that rather than the sticking tool.

[@eboone]

@@senor_sensei Lyrics go below dynamics whereas sticking goes above dynamics, closer to the notes and easier to read

[@senor_sensei]

@@eboone Didn’t know that, interesting

[@marlonsierra1]

There is nothing good to watch on KZbin anymore, but EMCProductions is what really makes KZbin great and makes me happy. So I just want to say thank you EMCProductions for making KZbin fun for me

[@arnoldwardenaar127]

Hi Eric, 11:20 If you want to tie 2 different notes together with MuseScore, select the notes you want to tie and use the "S" key (this adds a slur). That should work! Good job by the way, I like the explanations you give, so I can improve my own writing.

[@kaillimb1949]

Ctrl + adds a tie 👍

[@arnoldwardenaar127]

@@kaillimb1949 yep, but that's also the button he uses in the bar

[@MongerOfStrings8222]

You have to deselect note input otherwise it will just make the second note the same as the selected note

[@philipmateo3816]

I just changed the command to be just “t” for tie

[@seanmaccarthy-grant3604]

8:26 orchestral percussionists / timpanists will only play a roll if it's 3 bars on the tremolo. 2 bars means 16th notes. This notation is going to be super confusing

[@powtheginge]

I concur.

[@WaterNai]

I was thinking that the original notation gave it a bit of a pulse feel to fit with the vibe of the rest of the orchestration. However, I am not a percussionist/timpanist. I would love to hear your thoughts on that idea.

[@seanmaccarthy-grant3604]

@@WaterNai The problem is it just doesn’t say “roll.” Like that’s not how you write a roll, any timpanist who sees this will play 16th notes.

[@arzini6580]

that's oversimplified, usually two bars are 16ths, some composers use three bars for rolls, some want 32ths for it (especially Beethoven, for example ninth symphony, mov. 1). The best way to note rolls in an unambiguous way is with the trill line above. (And that's still not the full story.)

[@seanmaccarthy-grant3604]

@@arzini6580 Yeah this is true. Trill line is best. I would say though that composers only use the 3 lines for tremolo if they also separately have trill lines for rolls written out (as in Beethoven). As a timpanist if I see a part with only 3-bar-notes and no trill lines I will automatically assume that means rolls unless told differently.

[@tristanalderton1415]

Some of my favorite videos of yours are these ones where you are writing or transcribing music. Interesting to see how your experience is reflected in your musicality and how sick your beats are

[@roberthayden5865]

I have played that timpani part, and might i say, that is actually the most accurate rendition I've ever seen. 10/10

[@TylerDunphy]

Hey Eric! You can actually use the “beams” tab right on the left to change the beams in any single measure instead of changing all of them. Hope this helps!

[@seanhayden7776]

You can actually change the extra bassline to cymbals sounds! Never tried it for cymbals but if you bring up the inspector window (F8) there’s a drop down menu you can access to change the sound playback for that specific instrument. I’ve used it for changing voices in different wind and keyboard parts and it works well!

[@HmmmmmLemmeThinkNo]

I love how percussion notation is super variable, whereas there is much more standardisation of other instruments (violins, violas, cellos, and clarinets are what i'm most familiar with)

[@MongerOfStrings8222]

It makes it almost impossible to write parts for Orchestra Pit where one person is playing like 20 instruments per song and they all have different techniques

[@WhatAreDrums729]

Torn about correcting "choo-choo" to single-flammed mills around 2:00 mark. Similar hand motion, but different accent placement. Because I agree with the change!

[@stryk55]

Random percussion instructor/writer "Oh man, can't wait to see what trash he has to fix today!!!" (sees one of the parts he wrote for a group) "...damn..."

[@inacinni]

Eric has an incredible beard, can we just acknowledge that?

[@Lhart]

My son made a tenor drum out of old paint cans because he loves your videos

[@brickerupdike5908]

A couple musescore tips: In the advanced (or custom) panel, you can use the Beam Properties tab to make custom 8th note (and smaller) beams for each measure. You can assign a new keyboard shortcut under Preferences

[@kadencemarsh4517]

The timpani farting got me done😂

[@M0jibake]

7:57 actually sounded better than when you fixed it, as it sounded like there were accents on the timpani roll.

[@ignazachenbach5406]

10:16 you're supposed to _slur_ them together! Press S. This MuseScore tip has been courtesy of someone who's used it since 2013 since he can't afford Finale or Sibelius :)

[@cochese95]

“Choo-choos” for us were always a paradiddle accented on the downbeat with a flam tap on the diddle played without an accent.

[@jacobharper4647]

7:57 felt so intense and 8 measures later I died🤣

[@williampletcher8091]

Catching up on unwatched EMCproductions videos ... under THIS account! With Ads!!! Earning Eric the big bucks!!!

[@bailenwatson4027]

I have been watching his channel for a while and for Christmas I got a new set of tenners

[@udkline]

Really nice job fixing that bass part in the last example. So much clearer!

[@Mayhxmmmm]

1:56 correction, those're flammed mills, not choo-choos choo-choos are a paradiddle with a flam on the third partial

[@bby4505]

okay mister know it all

[@TylerDunphy]

@@bby4505 it’s important to know the rudiments correctly

[@aylexmusic]

@@bby4505 ???

[@bby4505]

@@TylerDunphy I was joking but it is

[@moppr]

thought i was the only one, lol. wasn't even paying attention to the screen but heard him talking about choo-choos and a second later heard mills and was very confused

[@JAM-rp6fi]

I feel like some of the groove was lost from the bass drums in that last piece. To me, taking out the downbeats on the 2 and 4 took emphasis away from the upbeats, making it lose its momentum. Before the change it had a disco groove, but after, it had more of a slow rock groove.

[@venizz5112]

View > Master Palette > Beam Properties for changing stem directions individually. Also for quick stickings, CTRL + L adds sticking text box.

[@carwash9333]

“160 is an average tempo” - TIL I’m bad lmao

[@initiatedcrown]

Eric just downplayed his top 3 EMC placement like he wasn't only 100 subs away from 2nd. I see you buddy! we'll get you to #1 in no time!

[@JamesThatcher]

, you're the second most subscribed EMC channel now

[@RedDogMamaHD]

Yes! Eric is increasing 1K every 4 days or so, Empire Motor club is 10 or more days to increase 1K. At that rate, he should really establish himself solidly as #2.

[@jacobh9344]

He’s the #2 EMC channel!

[@abnerwilhelm]

11:20 There is something in palettes that allows you to tie two different notes together. I can remember where it is off the top of my head but I know it is there

[@eboone]

10:16 If you put two sizzle notes, and make the second one staccato, it will create a sizz-suck sound. This also allows you to tie the notes but honestly I would just slur them

[@lildrumminggeiser4907]

I had an instructor that would use different types of accents as the dynamic(dumbest thing I’ve ever heard) so they would say nothing over a note 3 inches, a tenudo accident(the straight line) is 6 inches, a normal accent(the greater than symbol)is 9 inches, and a top hat accent was 12 inches. I don’t know how standard that is in the drumline world but from what I’ve seen it’s not so idk why people do it but they do

[@marktegrotenhuis]

I also know an instructor and composer who uses the > for "light" accents and ^ for "heavy" accents. To me that does make sense, but don't ask why. However it's the dynamics like pp, p, mp, mf, f and ff that determain how loud the accents actually are. For example a ^ accent in mf is similar to a regular note in f.

[@christianstainazfischer]

@@marktegrotenhuis typically, everything is a tap, when there’s an accent you play the dynamic marking 🤷‍♂️

[@JohnathanWhitehorn]

@@christianstainazfischer sure that wotks but that can only get you so far musically.

[@christianstainazfischer]

@@JohnathanWhitehorn ummm that's the standard? most groups do some kind of variation of that, and it's usually explained very clearly when it strays away from that for example you could have a passage where you want 6" taps and 9" accents you just write mf/mp as the dynamic marking, or maybe you want something to be more 'pulsed' than accented you could write a tututo - marking instead of an accent (or a stacato marking if you're paul rennnick), or maybe you have a forte section but you want one or two of the accents a little harder than forte you put this thing ^ , and other things like that but it's all based off the accents mean the dynamic marking and taps mean piano concept, super standard

[@marktegrotenhuis]

@@christianstainazfischer that's a different approach. I would actually refer to that as playing with ghost notes (kinda). It's a preference often used when the drumline is supporting the brass and you don't want the drums to be louder than the brass, but still have the accents clearly present. When you have drums playing on their own it's okay to just play the dynamics written and have the accents be (slightly) louder than that.

[@tylercarpenter6742]

I love when I see quad and bass parts that are basically the same.

[@bluewaveproductions4017]

You can change the keyboard shortcut for sticking in the Musescore preferences. Mine is Ctrl + S (or it might be alt + s) and that shortcut isn’t used anywhere else!

[@scottlogsdon9092]

First one was definitely MUDDY and the rewrite had a sweet groove to it. Needs to have a bridge measure for the repeat of some drag sweeps and bass splits for four counts then back into the grove.

[@friedpancakes266]

My show music this year started out easy. Band camp started the week after we got the music and we were expected to have it playable by then. So our instructor wrote a fun part, but then watered it down to make it quick to memorize. It's been a month since we started, and we're adding the rudiments back in. Our director makes no sense, but he made it work this year

[@Iplayquad]

Hey Eric! You can actually get a lot more creative with beaming in MuseScore, it is very simple. Rather than using a layout like you did in the beginning you can just highlight the notes you wish to edit, use the beams tab in palletes, then customize your beaming. :D

[@PaulKEgellJohnsen]

I remember that in Sibelius you could decide on staff properties per instrument and add midi commands to expression keywords to trigger changes in instrument play out. I learned a lot from it's examples and.default notation for timpani and percussion which was well integrated into its playout engine. It did do the crossed note heads for a lot of percussion instruments, but it is highly configurable. Rolls needed a trill or a tremolo line.

[@PaulKEgellJohnsen]

Damn. Sibelius is subscription now... Better hold on to an Intel Mac and older versions...

[@timmy_42069]

At 11:00 instead of tying, select both cymbal suck notes and hit “S” and it will put a slur

[@erinic04]

Whenever you want to write a flam, you can just press /, you don't have to click the pallette option, just so you know and so it can go faster.

[@dudders___1684]

Good to see you are still keeping the beard, it’s a good look for you

[@jacobrizzuto1501]

For the cymbal part, if you wanna use a tie for the notes. Instead of using an actual tie, use a slur marking. The shortcut for that is pressing S and then you can just drag the slur until it matches with the note. That’s what I do at least

[@pablzamudi]

You are now number 2 most subscribed emc KZbin channel

[@tebby24]

3:08 I’ve never heard of marcato accents modifying zone placement. Generally it’s just a louder accent and frequently a downstroke but I could be wrong

[@jeffstump7601]

19:04 that's actually pretty groovy.

[@MiraDaWulf]

The entire comment section is about musescore stuff, i love it

[@noahrubinmusic]

Thank you for teaching me how to write drum music.🙏

[@HA11EYS_COM3T]

I must say that crossovers on tenors look so cool.

[@Thor962]

Muse score master race! Also you can break up the beams on the master pallet

[@Iliketoboard]

Whoa! Somone’s been eating better since leaving the Marine Corps.

[@somesnaredude]

love that shirt lol I want one in plain letters that just says " drums"

[@amj.composer]

0:53, bruv you don't have to change the time signature settings. You can simple search "beaming" in pallettes and choose your desired beaming. Takes 1/10th the time!

[@trombonetimmy1064]

I LOVE THAT WALTZ

[@bby4505]

Im a beginner im in 6 grade and it is so cool to watch your videos because I will be able to know whats to come and I do not know anything that is writin

[@RedDogMamaHD]

It's great that you can learn from Eric's videos. I really enjoy seeing comments from beginning drummers. When you see a video that really helps you, create your own playlist so you can come back and review the ones you like the best and improve your technique. 😉

[@bby4505]

@@RedDogMamaHD okay thank you😄

[@eboone]

4:01 You can make a keyboard shortcut for it using preferences (I think?) and I use Alt+S

[@YouCrossedMyPath]

3:58 I find it much easier to use ctrl+L for sticking, it's technically "lyrics" but it's functionally the same and less clunky than using the pulldown to select "sticking"

[@sehyunjun251]

6:53 Nah, it's Finale fucking up when you try to write in the tuplets lol

[@AngryMusicTheoryNerd]

In Musescore 3, there is a tab for beam properties in Advanced where you can change it how you want

[@camilleon352]

In MuseScore, press ‘S’ to add a slur to whatever note is selected

[@RishiJalukar]

Yo u passed Empire Motor Club to become the second most subscriber EMC channel

[@cold_pyr0167]

All hail the glory beard on this man

[@scottlogsdon9092]

The original tympani roll sounds like a saw gun firing or one of the unmanned machine guns on a US Navy destroyer... Had to laugh

[@cubes1233]

I got noties on

[@sstupid__marimbaplayer]

He needs to help me with my marimba music 😂 the sticking is so weird. Gotta double on like everything

[@Sparkscomposing]

I saw your mapes wgi ad

[@TheChannellock]

Idk if somebody said this but those definitely mills, choo-choos are flam on the third partial from what I’ve seen.

[@jacksorrell5513]

In preferences you can make a keyboard shortcut for sticking

[@digitaldeathsquid3448]

12:34 I think that's called a tenuto? I can't remember 100% tho

[@RedDogMamaHD]

Comments: 1. Looks like you got a New Tenor PAD!!!! Did Santa come early? Or your Patrons help with new equipment acquisition? 2. I love all the comments with techniques for using MuseScore and other editing software. Sharing knowledge! Music professionals helping other professionals. 3. So glad you have those shiny new cymbals! 😘🥰

[@PuffyOne1898]

That’s a beautiful beard, hippie. Also whoever decided offbeat triplets should be a thing should be ashamed of themselves.

[@zhowie9826]

11:44 to 11:46 the part changes and does stuff that you revert later, why?

[@ShadowedOne]

Me now: Did you know you can’t do a diddle into a flam? Random stranger: “Huh?”

[@captainkiwi77]

One day Eric will show us how to play the troop March series with one bass. Actually as a whole, I’d love to know your general ideas for adapting things for super small bands. I’ve been running a tiny marching band out of Canada, and one thing I’ve struggled with is how to adapt things or just cope with having only 1 consistent bass player who isn’t even marching trained, they don’t have great rudiments, their hands decently fast though. I don’t know what to write for them besides like a standard breakbeat or slight variations.

[@captainkiwi77]

We’ve struggled learning things like set and the like, and the truth is I’m just a college student still, so I don’t know how to take this student led program to new horizons, but they have a solid foundation as a program especially given there are almost no other bands near us because Canada. I’ve been trying to build community with some of the other programs up here but that’s pretty hard this year in particular.

[@captainkiwi77]

Also day 10 of asking Eric to review the 7th regiment 2021 online show because open class is equally as deserving as love as world and we don’t stan open class discrimination here

[@covertcharisma]

The beard is super unexpected but looks good!

[@loki_the_rickster_god4989]

MuseScore ties are wonky. If they aren't doing what I want, the slur tool found in the "Lines" menu is more visually fluid.

[@southwest3799]

This man is great

[@gavin_bigred]

First You're doing a great service for the world

[@EMCproductions]

Thanks! and good job being first.

[@RedDogMamaHD]

Congrats on being first 😘!

[@christheviolaplayer8250]

10:19 you used a tie, which in musescore will only attach to two notes of the same pitch. because of how musecore soundfonts work a dot and an x are two different pitches and cannot be tied together, so it attaches to the next note with the same head type. if you want to tie two notes of different head types like this, you have to use a slur, which is the S key.

[@YouCrossedMyPath]

1:52 pretty sure those are Flammed Mills not choo choos, because the accent is on the flam

[@therubberchicken5894]

Video 17 of waiting for EMCproductions to eat a onion.

[@semperfisig]

Thought choo-choos were paradiddle sticking with flams on the 3rd partial? Did those change?

[@ArionTrizz]

Dannggg, I sent one in and I didn't see it on here, I sent in a quad Tom piecee.

[@akaiyui9300]

Video 10 of commenting until Eric reacts to my former high school's drumcorps and Steven to react to those flub-centric corps in my area. Expanding my idea further: React to drum corps all around the world.

[@jiifigmentforever]

Is it bad in the final cadence he rewrote I actually kinda miss the stick clicks on the bass drum part? In the before, they actually added something kinda nice.

[@brandonlincolnsnyder]

you should collaborate with the other EMC channels

[@furiousduck8905]

I am a softmore in high school and I would like some help to get better at snare for our 2022 marching show and pointers I should know?

[@abnerwilhelm]

4:00 Good Morning Eric! You can add a shortcut for sticking in Preferences I believe. It makes it a lot easier. Also a lot of people are talking about the beams tab so I won’t mention that here

[@jamesinman9262]

How does one make the shot notehead the better X versus the default thin X?

[@emperor_sebas2572]

Video 13 of commenting until EMC makes a marching drum with a snare drum, tenor drums, bass drums, and some cymbals.

[@simonbooth1581]

Yo, I got some cadences to learn fast but I watch these videos

[@claribass.contranet]

At around 11 minutes, you were clicking the wrong tie. That tie at the top goes automatically to the next note that is the same. In the line palette, there is another tie that just goes to the next note in the music, no matter what it is.

[@zkyishot]

me seeing percussion writing for the first: *funny words, magic man*

[@RedDogMamaHD]

Video 13 of Loopy Grandma asking Lil' Peanut to play Wipe Out by the Ventures!!! ... I know you are very creative, so I expect something EPIC! (This is getting tiresome! Time to follow through, Eric! 😅😂🤣🤣

[@AfriNoma]

Nice, ive been waiting for this

[@worm636]

plz do a series on this :)

[@darynporter1732]

I got a tenor practice pad!!