Add Staves Issue

Dorico
1

I’m really hoping someone can make sense of this issue to me. I am working on an orchestral score and the strings divide to separate staves at a certain point. I have to divide the strings into 4 staves each for Violin I, II, Viola, and Cello. I was going to use the add staves feature to accommodate this, but when I got to that part and went to create the staff split in the first violin part, I got a message that this could only be done on solo players. This doesn’t seem to be in the documentation, at least not in the instructions on how to add a staff. Other searches didn’t come up with anything more. I guess I’d like to know the logic of being able to split a single flute part, which is one person and would require a phenomenal breaking of biological laws, but a section of strings, which has multiple players can’t be divided? I really would like to know why this is before I have to go back and completely rethink my strategy of dealing with this piece. If I’m going to have to be looking at 17 staves for the strings along with all the other staves for the woodwinds, brass and percussion, it’s going to be impossible to see the entire score clearly even on a 32" screen (over 50 staves in Galley View).

I’m not trying to be difficult, but I would like to know why this is done this way. It means that the add staves feature is very limited. If I’m missing something, feel free to correct me. I did look through the forum and didn’t find anything, but I had 230 results come up for “Adding Staves” and it’s possible I missed one that explains either what I did wrong or why it works that way.

Thank you,
Tim

2

Peripheral, but shouldn’t you use section players for a section? This is, as I understand it, one of the underlying reasons for section vs. solo.

And it sounds like you should use the super-spiffy-awesome divisi function, not “add staves”!

3

Thanks, Dan.
I confused the Add Staves with the Divisi. Now I have it working. I am using section players for the strings.

Tim

4

I think Add Staves is for something like a piano or organ part where one needs an extra staff for a time to clarify notation.

5

Adding staves could be useful for a flute part, if you write music with performance instructions like “choose one of these alternatives and repeat for 30 seconds.” Or if you want to notate a rhythm for your flute player to tap-dance while playing :slight_smile:

6

Oh? You’ve run into that flute player too?