Writing Drums in Sibelius: The Ultimate Guide. Part 1

Writing drums in Sibelius can be daunting at first. Here I go through the steps to get you started entering your drum notation. You'll learn note input, working with repeat bars and also some layout options.
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[@JulianLambert]

Great video - really helpful. I'm now up and running. Thanks.

[@grantcollins]

Perfect! That was the exact goal of the video. Have fun with your drum notation!

[@drumrunner72]

Hi Grant. Great video. It'd be so helpful if Sibelius had a standard 'drum kit' where the note heads automatically default to X for Hi Hat etc.. If you edit 'drumset Rock' it shows all the correct note heads in the right places, so It's really frustrating when it doesn't simply write like that.

[@grantcollins]

HI Martyn, I can definitely see a use for that. Personally I like the flexibility as I may have different parts of the kit in the same line space but using a different notehead. I'm so use to it now and it only takes a second to change a notehead. Keyboard short cuts definitely help. Glad you enjoyed the video and I hope that you got a few tips to help with your notation.

[@pkdupuis]

Thanks a lot, sorry i'm french ;-) the shortcut X don't make an upside down ;-)

[@grantcollins]

On on a mac but I"m sure 'x' is the reverse of the stem direction. It can sometimes depend on what notes are around it and where it is in the bar. Try it on a some other notes to see if it works there.

[@KulgodPratik]

This is the best video tutorial on Sibelius, that I have ever seen. I was doing it all wrong till now. Thank you so much!

[@grantcollins]

Hey Pratik, Glad that you've enjoyed the tutorial!

[@niteshadhikari4735]

when is part 2 coming?

[@grantcollins]

Hi Nitesh, Instead of doing parts I've being doing up video with specific topics. If you check my videos, you can see another couple on there. Let me know if there are any other topics that you would like to see! Thanks, Grant 🥁

[@daydreamjohnny]

Such a helpful video for me (a complete beginner). For some reason pressing 'x' on a hi-lighted measure doesn't flip it around. Can you think of why that might be?

[@grantcollins]

Great to hear that the video helped you out! If you have different voices such as bass, snare & hi hat in the measure, I've also experienced this. The trick with that is to highlight an individual note and press 'x'. It may be that you just need to flip a bass drum and the other notes of that beat will move with it. I hope that helps.

[@eugenelacouture3222]

@@grantcollins I'm not able to flip the stem too, and idk whyy anyway, thank's a lot for the video, it helped me out

[@Taka-nq3ys]

Hi Grant, is there anyway you can write out brushes on snare? which playback would be brushes too.

[@grantcollins]

Hi Taka, There's no real standardised notation for brushes. One common way to notate them is to write the primary rhythm and use slurs to tie the notes together. As for the playback side of things, to my knowledge, there is no such feature to playback brush sounds in Sibelius. If you're looking to do a mix down for audio purposes, you could export as a midi file to a DAW such as Logic Pro x and use a loop for the Brushes. Thanks, Grant.

[@herlambanglukas8260]

Hi I want to ask you, how did you change hit hat up and bass drum and snare down. Please help me

[@grantcollins]

If you put the hit in voice 1 and the snare/bass in voice two you will have independent control of the stem direction. By default, Sibelius will point V1 up and V2 down. To change the direction of a single )or group of notes): Highlight the note that you want to change the stem direction and press'x'. I hope that helps!

[@yichen4104]

dear, i press shift option and 1 but couldn't call out the cross ... it is because i use 'sibelius first' ?

[@grantcollins]

Hi, I've not use Sibelius First so am not sure about that one. The shift/option 1 should work. I have had an instance where I had to use the '1' on the number pad instead of the top of the keyboard when using a different keyboard so give that ago. If it still doesn't work, it's easy to contact Sibelius support via their Facebook page. I hope that it all works out!

[@paulgeorgmusic]

I really think drum notation in Sibelius is broken at the core. One of the key features of Avid Sibelius is the work flow achieved by using the keypad shortcuts etc. This cannot be achieved while doing drum notation. It's very hard to get in the flow of notating when you constantly have to correct the note input. While in drum notation mode notating a hi-hat note should be instant. It should be effortless. And of course there are workaround using copy/paste and such, but for the leading music notating software the choppy state of the drum notation side of Sibelius is just hands down UNACCEPTABLE. The fact that there are specific plugins for things like "Insert a bar of stemless slashed notes" just proves how poorly developed Sibelius is. A simple solution would be to have specifik note input while in drum notation mode witch key shortcuts for the most common drum notations. I can't understand why they don't fix this.

[@grantcollins8252]

Yes, there are definitely somethings that they can improve on with regards to drumset notation. I've used other software and have found that Sibelius is the most flexible and versatile for my use. Some of the other software will have the hi hat instant if you put it above the top line but then if you want to also have a tom on that line you have to go in and fluff about in settings to get that sorted. Drumset notation is unfortunately not the highest of priorities with notation software so unless we start up our own specific drumset notation software (which would be bloody awesome!), I think we will always be left wanting more. Thanks for checking out the video!

[@jeromeharper9707]

100% agreed. Ridiculous this costs monthly but this is still an issue. Sort it out AVID!

[@jamessbca]

I’ve used finale off and on over the years. Everyone says Sibelius is easier / more intuitive. The thing is, us drummers have specific needs. This video shows me it’s worse for drumset notation. This is *not* a critique of the video. This video is outstanding for showing what it’s like to really use the software. At this point in time, I’m having a hard time believing anything is better than pencil and paper for us drummers making charts for ourselves. I’m currently experimenting with using Adobe Illustrator with a Wacom tablet / stylus. Crazy, but true.

[@jeffjuhre1494]

Can you record a multi-staff composition from SIbelius into Pro Tools putting the instrument on each staff into a different track in Pro Tools? If so, how?

[@grantcollins]

Hi Jeff, its a little off this topic but you can export audio from Sibelius. I use Logic Pro X but you should be able to also do with Pro Tools. Sibelius will only export audio as a stereo file so you would not get all of the individual instruments. My suggestion would be to export a midi file from Sibelius. This will keep all instruments seperate and also include things such as tempo and time signatures. Then you can open the exported file with Pro Tools and it will have all of the parts as individual tracks. Then you can play around with the sounds to get it how you like. I hope this helps! Thanks, Grant 🥁

[@eduardomorenorojas5756]

How do you write the sticking patterns for fills?

[@grantcollins]

You can check out Part 2 which answers this exact question! kzbin.info/www/bejne/oaS1oJp8ib6ootk

[@luigiarredondosax]

is there anyway to make charts for each part of the drums separately? snare, bass, and cymbals? this is a great introduction but I need an advanced lesson

[@alexmondra4245]

i recomend you use 2 voices one for cymbals and another for drums

[@grantcollins]

Yes! You can make an instrument for each different part and put your notation in. I often use this when I'm writing for multiple limbs. I'll put it on my list to do up a video for it!

[@mikemathieson3700]

How do I change the bass drum stems to point down seperatly from the snare and hh's

[@grantcollins]

Hi Mike, to have the stems pointing in different directions, you would need to have the hi hat & snare in one voice and the bass drum in another voice. That way you can control the stem direction independently. I hope that helps! Thanks, Grant 🥁

[@mikemathieson3700]

Thanks it took me a while but figured it out

[@jordansaltmarsh3808]

Hey Grant! Love this video so much! Thank you for it. At the end of your video when you push "Command" to separate the bars and have 2 per line, for some reason mine doesn't do that....any tips as to why that is? I'm pretty new to Sibelius so trying to figure it all out. Also, would love to know how you setup numbers to appear in what you referred to as "engraving rules" when you pushed "command+r." Thanks!

[@grantcollins]

Hi Jordan, awesome to hear that you've enjoyed the video. To seperate the bars, you need to first click on the end barline and it will highlight in blue, then press return and the bar following it will move to the next line. The 'command+r' is the short cut for rehearsal marks. The 'engraving rules' can be found on the fat left of the engraving rules. In there you can see a bunch of different things that you can change the parameters of including rehearsal marks. I hope this helps and let me know if there are any other topics that you'd like to know about. Sibelius can be a bit daunting at first but once you get the basic dialled in you'll be doing up you parts in no time! Thanks, Grant 🥁

[@jordansaltmarsh3808]

@@grantcollins You are the man, Grant! Thank you so much. Just transcribed my first tune :) This was a lot of help.

[@brothaman4578]

Shit + 1 doesn't work for me to change to a high hat notation. Anybody have direction on how I can find different notation options?

[@grantcollins]

It's shift + Option + 1 for the hi hat. using the shift + option + # will give you the range of different notepads that you can use. I hope this helps!

[@kstung2125]

Please tell me Software and window? I want to know.

[@grantcollins]

The software is Sibelius and I"m in the main composing window.

[@jacobm92]

kick drum and hands should be separate voices.

[@grantcollins]

Traditionally yes. There has been more engravers using all stems up for drum notation in recent years. I find myself moving between single voice and two voice notation depending on the part and what I feel is the best way to make it as easy to read as possible. If you're interested, there is a great article on this topic here: www.onlinedrummer.com/blogs/drum-lessons/introduction-to-voicing-in-drum-notation. Have an awesome day! Thanks, Grant.

[@jacobm92]

@@grantcollins thanks for reply, ill check it out

[@grantcollins]

@@jacobm92 Let me know what you think of it!