Ledger lines for marching tenors

[JoeViviano]

I'm writing out some parts for a tenor lines that uses six-drum sets. I would like to put notes for the highest drum just above one ledger line, but when I write the part into Sibelius, no ledger line appears. Is there a setting to toggle this on and off? I can make the note appear in the correct place, but there is no line, so it looks odd.

[Sebasian]

Is there a setting to toggle this on and off?

In the Manuscript paper for Marching Band the Marching Tenor Drums instrument has leger lines off. You need to use House Styles > Edit Instruments to change this. When you get to the main Edit Instrument dialog, click Edit Staff Type > Notes and Rests and tick the leger lines box.

If you do this with a blank score, you can then save it, and use File > Export to save it as Manuscript Paper for future use. If you do it with some other score, you can export a House Style which you can later import into a score to use this same version of the instrument.

[JoeViviano]

Thanks. That worked well.

[JoeViviano]

When typing in new notes, I type as if the drums correspond to the treble clef. This works fine. There is one annoyance. When I press E (for this instrument), I always mean the top space, never the line on the bottom of the staff. Sibelius just picks whichever of the two Es is closer to the prior note. Is there someway that E can always be the top space, C can always be the next space, A can always be next, and F can always be the bottom?

[Sebasian]

Is there someway that E can always be the top space . . .

None that I've found, short of a special-purpose plug-in.

You might consider just leaving the notes where they fall, then later filter them all with the Advanced Filter and change octave for all of them. But it's probably easier and quicker just to get used to changing octave as you go.

Or you could always consider using a MIDI keyboard for input.

[JoeViviano]

I have a nice MIDI controller keyboard, but at the moment, most of the writing I'm doing is for drums, and I'd rather not put an 88 key instrument on my desk when I only need six inputs. Do you have any knowledge of inexpensive hardware that could do the job without taking up my entire desk?

Perhaps a cheap MIDI drumpad?