Making a Tight Drumline Exercise Packet in Office for Mac
The crux: Make a *.pdf of your music, but with narrow margins and no title text, and
import it into a word processing document.
Accompanying video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiP6iS_b-5U
Accompanying material: http://fatmattdrums.com/fatmattdrums/Exercises__Build_Your_Own_Packet.html
Software used:
Finale 2009: however, you can use any notation software, as long as you know how to edit the
page margins.
Microsoft Word for Mac 2011: however, I’m told that Apple’s Pages (part of iWork) will also
import *.pdf files and render them properly. I have also tried this in Microsoft Word for
Windows 2013, but I could not get the *.pdf to render properly (it simply flattened it into an
image, which will not print crisply if it’s music).
Preview (comes with OSX): however, it is not necessary. It is used to crop your *.pdf files so
that they are easy to drop into the document. You could also just crop it in Word, but I find this
inconvenient.
1. Set up your word processing document. [Word]
• You don’t want too much margin on each side, or it will shrink the music too much. I like 0.75”
on either side.
• Figure out what typefaces you want to use and what sizes you want for different elements
(titles, tempo indicators, explanatory text) so that you can keep it consistent throughout.
Remember: serif typefaces (like Times) are more readable on paper than sans-serif typefaces
(like Arial), which are more readable on a screen.
2. Edit your engraving (Finale, Sibelius, etc.) document. [Finale]
• You want to get rid of unnecessary text and white space in order to create a *.pdf file of just the
music/staff elements and nothing else.
• In Finale, the Resize Page feature in the Page Layout menu will let you resize the music so that
it doesn’t take up too much space. I like the way 80% size looks in the finished document.
• Set the page margins to 0.0” on the top and bottom and 0.1” on the left and right.
• Delete all text boxes.
• Space your staff systems so that there are no collisions, but so that there isn’t too much space
between systems. This will make it readable without causing your music to take up too much
space in your document.
• Print to *.pdf
3. Crop your *.pdf file [Preview]
• This allows you to avoid the step of having to crop it in Word. And if you make another packet
in the future, your *.pdf is ready to be dropped in.
4. Drop your *.pdf files into your Word *.doc.
• You can add whatever explanatory text, titles, and tempo information you like.
• If you didn’t crop the *.pdf, you can crop it in Word. Right click -> Format Picture -> Crop
Some Basics
(Example)
Velocity Strokes are really important in drumming. They’re so important that they’ve made it into this
example of how an exercise packet drawn up in Office For Mac 2011 might look. 8-8-16 is a legatos
exercise for working on velocity strokes. Here, it is shown with its title and tempo markers in a 1x3
table, so that the title text can be centered, while the tempo marking is flush with it, to keep the whole
exercise from taking up too much vertical real estate.
q = 120 – 186
8-8-16
÷ 44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
R
5
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
L
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
R
R
R
R
R
R
÷œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
R
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
L
R
R
Œ
R
R
Ó
Doublestrokes are also velocity strokes, but there are two of them. At slower tempi, they are identical
to the strokes in 8-8-16. At faster tempi, things get a little more complicated in ways that cannot be
explained by mortal men. But in this packet, we will attempt to do so.
q = 88 – 152
Sanford Double Beat
÷ 44 œ œ œ œ œ œ ! œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ! œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ! œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ! œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
R R
5
R R
R R
R R
R
R
L L
L L
L L
L L
L
L
R R
R R
R R
R R
R R
R
R
R R
R R
R R
R R
÷ œ œ œ œ œ œ !œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ !œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ !œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ !œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ Ó
L L
L L
L L
L L
L
L
R R
R R
R R
R R
R
R
L L
L L
L L
L L
L L
L
L
L L
L L
L L
L L
L
R
R