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Percussion Layouts (libraries)

Finale includes many percussion layout libraries that can be loaded into any document. If you start a new score with the Document Setup Wizard, many of these are already available in your document. Their purpose is to get you started and to provide some common approaches to notating percussion staves. Although users notate percussion in many different ways, Finale’s libraries are based on one increasingly accepted standard (the Percussive Arts Society (PAS) standard).

However, since no single standard exists for all percussion notation, you’ll probably want to create your own custom layouts or edit Finale’s to match your needs. Once you've created the layouts, save them into your own percussion layouts library so that you can load them into any new file you create. Or, load them into the Maestro Font Default file, so the percussion layouts are ready for use in new documents. For a list of percussion layout libraries, see Percussion Layout Libraries under Finale Libraries in the Appendix.

The Entry maps provide most of the note definitions for a standard five tom-tom drum kit and other percussion instruments. Each map is configured for use with Maestro Percussion, one of Finale’s notehead fonts. You can also use Tamburo or any other music font for your percussion staff. (Choose the notehead font to use for the staff in the Staff Attributes dialog box.)

You can review the definition for all of Finale's percussion layouts, as well as the ones you have defined yourself, in the Percussion Layout Designer dialog box. (Select the percussion layout you want to reference in the Percussion Layout Selection dig box.)

 

 

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