NOTATIO

I'm adding a drum set staff to a concert band score. Where should I place the staff? I'm guessing the staff should go above the snare drum/bass drum staff.

I can't answer directly where to put it in the band score, but another issue here is a comma – do not use it for the staff names.

In orchestra scores I've often seen it below all other percussion.

Thanks, OCTO and RMK.

My clients (educational music) set up the percussion section like this:

Percussion 1 (Snare Drum and Bass Drum, or Drum Set)
Percussion 2 (Cymbals and accessories)
(another stave Percussion 3 if needed)
Mallet Percussion
(another stave Mallets 2 if needed)
Timpani

N.

As referred to by N. it is standard to write Perc 1, Perc. 2 in the margins instead of the individual instruments. What Percussion 1 is is defined on the instrumentation page. Then individual abbreviations appear over each percussion staff to define the instrument actually playing. E. Gould has an excellent section on score layout and mentions placing the timpani over the percussion, but doesn't seem to address a drum set.

As a conducter of a school concert band I can say: There is no standard order for percussion/drum staves. Different scores have different orders.

In newer scores I often see timpani at the top, then percussion 1, 2, ... and the drumset at the bottom.

Thomas

John Ruggero wrote: ↑25 Feb 2017, 13:33 As referred to by N. it is standard to write Perc 1, Perc. 2 in the margins instead of the individual instruments. What Percussion 1 is is defined on the instrumentation page. Then individual abbreviations appear over each percussion staff to define the instrument actually playing.

+1. If anyone is curious, here's the percussion key for a piece I copied for a fairly well known composer back in 2004 or so. (He's now deceased, but had won a Pulitzer for composition, as well as a MacArthur.) The 8 percussionists were assigned instruments as follows, but then the staves were just numbered 1-8, with each entrance of a new instrument marked with boxed text.



Somewhat uniquely, for this piece it was decided to have 2 sets of percussion parts made. One set had Perc. 1-4 and Perc. 5-8, and the other set had all individual parts. I guess that way the performers could pick and choose if they wanted all the additional information or not.

Actually not so unique. Many of the John Williams Signature Series Suites (Hal Leonard) use this exact method - several copies of percussion score and also individual parts.