In my last two posts, I shared ideas for adding Drum Grooves in Finale and Sibelius.

There are another ways to import Drum Grooves into your Finale or Sibelius notation scores.

1. If you own a Digital Audio Workstation program such as Pro Tools, Logic, Digital Performer, Sonar, Reason or others, you can save drum grooves in MIDI format and import the file into your notation software.

2. You can also download a plethora of MIDI drum grooves from websites for free as well as purchasing libraries of MIDI drum grooves.

There are many websites that offer a wide variety of MIDI drum grooves. Since you are going to notate the grooves, MIDI is the way to go. Audio files cannot be easily converted to notation. However, MIDI files can be opened directly into notation software.

If you do a Google search for “MIDI Drum Beats,” the hits will be in the thousands. Some of these sites are selling their beats, but there are lots of free options. One such site is: http://mididrumfiles.com

Click on the Free Downloads option.
http://mididrumfiles.com/0504/download_free_midi_drum_files/

Click on the groove name to audition it. To download it, go back to the page with the original link and right-click on it and save it to your desktop. Check out the video that demonstrates these steps: MIDI drum files download how to

The next step it to import it into your notation program.

1. Import the MIDI file into your Notation Software. It will open in a new file.
2. Open the score you wish to use the drum pattern.
3. From the Window Menu choose the MIDI drum loop you opened in step 1.
4. Copy the pattern to the clipboard.
5. Choose the destination score from the Window menu.
6. Select the bar and paste in the pattern.

It is a good idea to save the MIDI drum grooves you import in the software for later use. You can save the individual notation files or copy and paste them into one score and label the grooves. Then, you can copy and paste them in later scores as needed.

What are your favorite locations for MIDI drum grooves?