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Topic: Stave Changes in Score (Read 166 times) |
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Quicky
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Stave Changes in Score
« on: Aug 4th, 2026, 12:24am » |
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Hi All,
Newbie to the forum (be gentle please) Have used Melody assistant 2o years ago and just purchased Harmony assistant to get back into some music scoring again.
This might be a bit of a daft question.
Is it possible to Add or remove staves in the middle of a document.
I am helping out writing a musical score. (Piano and single voice for example in the first 50 bars. After this point there is a choir section for 20 bars then bac to a single voice.
Rather than having the SATB on the score from the start and just having rests in all the sections till they start singing. Is it possible to put them in at a certain point and remove them again afterwards.
(Basically to save space and paper for the school to print).
IF this is possible does anyone have an example of how to do it. This is just to allow me to not draw the four voices and use merge to merge them together.
As an example I have just found
Score One by One
Travis Clark
in the MUSL demonstration pieces which sort of does what I would like to. In that piece the music starts with a few bars of music before the stave has the voices added in. The piano part only showing at first then the voices later when they start.
This is what I am sort fo trying to do with Piano and one voice to begin with for about 50 bars and then at that point add in SATB.
I am sure there is a tutorial somewhere but at the moment all I can get if them all from the start.
Thanks for any help
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| « Last Edit: Aug 4th, 2026, 12:45am by Quicky » |
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bubu42
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Re: Stave Changes in Score
« Reply #1 on: Aug 4th, 2026, 9:52am » |
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In HA staff exists throughout the whole score (exactly like in MA), from beginning to end. It is necessary in order to have a correct sound rendering and an exact computation of all the data in the score.
However, a staff may be visible or invisible in page mode. If you go to Score>Page mode setup, there are plenty of options. One of them is "Dont print empty staves" (in the 4th section of that menu). That way, the staves are hidden when nothing has been written and visible where notes/texts, etc. are present. This depends on the page layout and is recomputed evry time it changes (e.g. when you add an "end of line after this bar" marker.
Of course, when you are in scroll mode (the contrary of page mode/Ctrl+G) all the staves are displayed, which allows you to change their content at any point of the score.
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| « Last Edit: Aug 4th, 2026, 9:52am by bubu42 » |
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Harmony Assistant 32 bits - Ubuntu + Wine et Windows XP sur machine virtuelle. VS, OMeR, PDF2M
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Quicky
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Re: Stave Changes in Score
« Reply #2 on: Aug 4th, 2026, 10:37am » |
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Thank you for your reply bubu42.
So to use Travis music as an example. He has probably written all the staves he needs, the piano, the SATB. With nothing in the unused sections, no rests or anything.
The user goes to the score>page mode setup and selects dont print empty staves that means when we look at the score in page mode the empty sections should not be seen? Or does this only work when printed out or exported?
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| « Last Edit: Aug 4th, 2026, 12:52pm by Quicky » |
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ANdre_B
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Re: Stave Changes in Score
« Reply #3 on: Aug 4th, 2026, 4:07pm » |
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What you see in page mode is what would get printed.
For sure, you can have further questions. But then, best link them to the practical example of what you have reached till now.
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André Baeck, de retour en Belgique après 12 ans passés dans le Gard.
Windows 11, HA 2026h1e (et précédents)
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Quicky
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Re: Stave Changes in Score
« Reply #4 on: Aug 4th, 2026, 5:05pm » |
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Yep, sorry it was a first question at 12.30am in the morning after i had been trying to work it out for some time and checking the user docs and not having ever used Harmony, but only melody 20 years ago.
Other programs use special breaks and allow added staves as you go along.
Did not know how Harmony did it, now I do and will try it tonight.
Tried and works thank you all.
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| « Last Edit: Aug 4th, 2026, 10:21pm by Quicky » |
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Sylvain Machefert
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Re: Stave Changes in Score
« Reply #5 on: Aug 10th, 2026, 9:21pm » |
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Hi and welcome!
There are two concepts:
- Printing options: hide empty staves
- staff display option: you can tell if the staff is always visible (does not obey to printing options) or follow printing option.
To access printing options, go to File menu.
To access staff display options, use the black triangle on left side of the staff. If the left side icons are not visible, you are in Page Mode and need to press Ctrl+T which toggles handles and left side icons.
The two dialogs have plenty of options, so take the time to try and understand them.
I wrote a script in Scripts > Miscellaneous > Swiss knife menu which allow to access these settings in hierarchical menus, apply staff display options to several staves in one shot... but I recommand you to know the standard dialogs. I wrote the swiss knife for new features and productivity I needed.
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