На самом деле вбивать барабанные партии нотами очень просто и гораздо нагляднее чем какие-то непонятные цифры.
Вот из FAQ с официального сайта Guitar Pro:
Q5 : How do I display tablature for drums?
This kind of view has been removed for drums, because it does not cover the full range of articulations available in our bundled drumkit.
However, drum edition is quite easy to handle after a short practice time. Indeed, you just have to move cursor on the right element line, and press '0' or '1' to insert the most common articulation, or '2' and '3' to insert other articulations (eg.: closed HiHat = 1, half-opened HiHat = 2, opened HiHat = 3). Moreover, name of the element at the cursor position is displayed in the status bar of the window (at the bottom side of the window). This contextual help will be enhanced in a near future to show articulation on top of the cursor. A shortcut table will be available in the documentation.
Instrument window allows you to edit your drum track, and shows shortcuts of every articulations.
Most of the people who were initially disappointed with this new approach, but have at least tried to use it, do not miss the old one.