I'm trying to set up a score for a tune I'm writing and I want to use a drumset. The latest sibelius templates don't have a staff set up for drum set and the note heads don't appear correctly when I type in it.

Do these current templates recognize drumset notation? If so, how can I utilize them?

There's no drumset map at all? I've got it on the template I downloaded from the site. Click on a measure to highlight it, then click Create>Other>Staff Type Change>Percussion. You may have to scroll down, but both are there. They are called VDL:2 Drumset AutoRL (KS) and VDL:2 Drumset Basic (KS)

Indeed. To further clarify on what Bill said, to correctly notate your drumset staff (or any other instruments that aren't currently setup in the template), you first have to either:

A) create a new staff
or
B) select an existing staff (i.e. Chimes) that you'd like to substitute with your instrument of choice (i.e. Drumset Basic).

Either way, the next step you need to do is to set the STAFF TYPE (which contains the proper mapping/noteheads/staff placement). Click the first measure of that staff so it's framed in a blue outline, and follow the instructions that Bill mentioned in the previous post.

Hope this definition helps. This will probably be a great topic to go further in depth with in a future tutorial. But the good news is that your current template should already contain the functionality you need. All you have to do is configure the correct staff type.

Good luck!

Thanks.

I'm still new to using Sibelius so I didn't know I had to do that.

Glad we could help. And if it makes you fell any better, I was new to Sibelius just about 2 years ago and killed Jim practically with questions.