Percussion

• Percussion clef
• Staff lines
• Unpitched notes
• Partially pitched notes
• Notehead shapes
  • Layout parameter method
  • Interpretation method
• Rests
• Transposition
• Analysis considerations
• Percussion instrument codes

Percussion parts are encoded in **kern spines, using a percussion clef and markers to indicate unpitched or semipitched notes, as well as interpretation or layout parameter control of notehead shapes.

Percussion clef

Use *clefX for a percussion clef, with X meaning unpitched.

**kern
*clefX
*M4/4
1bR
*-

If a number is given after X, the clef will be centered on that line.

**kern
*clefX5
*M4/4
1bR
*-

Staff lines

To set the number of lines for a staff, add the interpretation *stria at the start of the spine before any data (notes/rests), adding the number of lines at the end of the interpretation.

**kern
*stria1
*clefX
*M4/4
4eR
8eRL
8eRJ
8eR/L
8eR/J
4eR/
*-

Unpitched notes

The placement of notes on the staff is controlled by assigning pitch names to the notes, and they will be positioned as if they were on a treble-clef staff. If there is a single line on the staff, then that is treated as the bottom line of the treble clef, and the notes placed on this line have the “pitch” of e.

Percussion notes must include R to indicate that they are unpitched. This is important for analysis purposes, so percussion-clef notes without an R qualification will be highlighted in red to indicate a problem:

**kern
*stria1
*clefX
*M4/4
4e
8eL
8eJ
8eR/L
8eR/J
4eR/
*-

Partially pitched notes

If notes are not pitched, but also not fully unpitched, the marker RR can be used to indicate that a note is partially pitched. This is useful for instruments such as tom-toms or rototoms where the drums are pitched from low to high. In this case the general pitch-height is useable for analysis rather than the notated pitch.

**kern
*clefX
*M4/4
4eRR
8gRRL
8ffRRJ
8ddRR/L
8dRR/J
4gRR/
*-

Notehead shapes

Notehead shapes can be set either by layout parameters applied to individual notes, or a notehead shape interpretation that affects all notes after it in the music. Available notehead shapes:

Layout parameter method

Add a note layout parameter immediately before the note with a “head” parameter set to the notehead shape:

**kern
*stria1
*clefX
=1
!LO:N:head=x
4eR
!LO:N:head=plus
4eR
!LO:N:head=dia
4eR
!LO:N:head=slash
4eR
!LO:N:head=solid
4eR
!LO:N:head=open
4eR
!LO:N:head=whole
4eR
!LO:N:head=regular
4eR
*-

Interpretation method

If the notehead shape does not change often, use the *head interpretation:

**kern
*stria3
*clefX
*M4/4
*head:x
4eR/
8gR/L
8bR/J
8bR/L
8eR/J
4gR/
*head:dia
16bRL
16aR
16gR
16fRJ
4eR
*-

Rests

Rests will usually be centered on staff lines:

**kern	**kern	**kern	**kern	**kern
*stria5	*stria4	*stria3	*stria2	*stria1
*clefX	*clefX	*clefX	*clefX	*clefX
1r	1r	1r	1r	1r
2r	2r	2r	2r	2r
4r	4r	4r	4r	4r
8r	8r	8r	8r	8r
16r	16r	16r	16r	16r
=	=	=	=	=
*-	*-	*-	*-	*-

Since rests are not pitched, there is no need to add R markers that are needed for unpitched sounding notes.

To move rests vertically, add the treble-clef pitch for the desired position on the staff, where the lowest line of the percussion clef is e:

**kern
*stria3
*clefX
8r
8rc
8re
8rg
8rb
8rdd
=
*-

Transposition

Unlike pitched notes, unpitched notes will not be transposed by the transpose filter:

**kern	**kern
*stria1	*
*clefX	*clefG2
*M4/4	*M4/4
*	*k[]
=	=
*head:x	*
8eRL	4c
16eRL	.
16eRJJ	.
8eRL	8eL
8eR	8d
8eR	8c
8eRJ	8BJ
4eR	4c
=	=
*-	*-

Applying the filter transpose -t m3 to transpose the music up a minor third:

!!!filter: transpose -t m3
**kern	**kern
*stria1	*
*clefX	*clefG2
*M4/4	*M4/4
*	*k[]
=	=
*head:x	*
8eRL	4c
16eRL	.
16eRJJ	.
8eRL	8eL
8eR	8d
8eR	8c
8eRJ	8BJ
4eR	4c
=	=
*-	*-

The final transposed data (compile filter with alt+c):

**kern	**kern
*stria1	*
*clefX	*clefG2
*M4/4	*M4/4
*	*k[b-e-a-]
=	=
*head:x	*
8eRL	4e-
16eRL	.
16eRJJ	.
8eRL	8gL
8eR	8f
8eR	8e-
8eRJ	8dJ
4eR	4e-
=	=
*-	*-

If you need to transpose unpitched notes, then temporarily remove the R marker, and then add it back after transposing the music. Use the shed filter to convert R into an unused signifier, such as Z and then back again after transposition as an easy method to force unpitched notes to transpose.

!!!filter: shed -ke 's/R/Z/g'
!!!filter: transpose -t m3
!!!filter: shed -ke 's/Z/R/g'
**kern	**kern
*stria1	*
*clefX	*clefG2
*M4/4	*M4/4
*	*k[]
=	=
*head:x	*
8eRL	4c
16eRL	.
16eRJJ	.
8eRL	8eL
8eR	8d
8eR	8c
8eRJ	8BJ
4eR	4c
=	=
*-	*-

The filter -k -e 's/R/Z/g' first changes all R characters into Z in **kern data (-k means only process **kern spines, and only data tokens will be processed by default). Then the transpose -t m3 filter transposes all notes up a minor third in both pitched and previously unpitched notes. And finally shed -k -e 's/Z/R/g' changes the Z characters back into R characters. Here is the final data after unpitched note transposition:

**kern	**kern
*stria1	*
*clefX	*clefG2
*M4/4	*M4/4
*	*k[b-e-a-]
=	=
*head:x	*
8gRL	4e-
16gRL	.
16gRJJ	.
8gRL	8gL
8gR	8f
8gR	8e-
8gRJ	8dJ
4gR	4e-
=	=
*-	*-

Analysis considerations

If you want to do rhythmic analysis with data containing unpitched notes, nothing special needs to be done to the music. However, for pitch analysis with tools that are not aware of the R marker, first convert the R into r to make these notes appear as rests in the data. This can be done easily with the shed filter:

**kern	**kern
*stria1	*
*clefX	*clefG2
*M4/4	*M4/4
*	*k[]
=	=
*head:x	*
8eRL	4c
16eRL	.
16eRJJ	.
8eRL	8eL
8eR	8d
8eR	8c
8eRJ	8BJ
4eR	4c
=	=
*-	*-

Add the filter shed -ke 's/R/r/g' to the data:

!!!filter: shed -ke 's/R/r/g'
**kern	**kern
*stria1	*
*clefX	*clefG2
*M4/4	*M4/4
*	*k[]
=	=
*head:x	*
8eRL	4c
16eRL	.
16eRJJ	.
8eRL	8eL
8eR	8d
8eR	8c
8eRJ	8BJ
4eR	4c
=	=
*-	*-
!!!filter: shed -s1 -e 's/[JLKk]//g'

There is currently a bug in verovio that causes the notation to not show if there is a beam containing only rests, so the filter shed -s1 -e 's/[JLKk]//g' needs to be added if you want to see the rests (this is not otherwise necessary preparation for input to analysis tools, and should be fixed in verovio in the future). The -s1 option means to only apply the sed commands to the first spine.

And after compiling the filter (with alt+c), the data has rests that were originally unpitched notes:

**kern	**kern
*stria1	*
*clefX	*clefG2
*M4/4	*M4/4
*	*k[]
=	=
*head:x	*
8er	4c
16er	.
16er	.
8er	8eL
8er	8d
8er	8c
8er	8BJ
4er	4c
=	=
*-	*-

Percussion instrument codes

Percussion instruments can be categorized as such with the *ICidio (idiophone) interpretation. Specific insturments: