Chord symbol regions; unable to hide staves

Dorico
1

I have a musical theatre vocal score. At different points, I want the piano to be:

  • fully realised two-stave accompaniment (with chord symbols above the treble stave)
  • single-stave slash regions (with chord symbols above the single stave)
  • hidden entirely (with chord symbols above the top-most vocal stave).

Here’s the issue: when a Player (= singer, but y’know) has a chord symbol region anywhere in the score, even in a different flow entirely, it seems impossible both to hide that stave when empty and show chord symbols when desired. In that Player’s settings in Setup mode:

  • Chord Symbols > Show For Rhythm Section Instruments means that no chord symbols will display on this singer’s stave, even when I’ve explicitly put in a Chord Symbol Region;
  • Chord Symbols > Show in Chord Symbol and Slash Regions means that it becomes impossible to hide the stave when empty.

(FYI this is a native Dorico project, not an XML import.)

My options here seem to be:

  • Maintain at least a single-stave piano slash region throughout the entire score of this musical (not ideal, but workable and straightforward)
  • Split certain vocal lines into two separate Players, purely for the purposes of separating out staves that occasionally have Chord Symbol Regions and staves that never have Chord Symbol Regions (messy)

Anyway, is there some setting I’m missing here to both hide staves when they’re empty and show chord symbols when I want them?

2

No, this is a bug, but a fixable one. Apply a Chord Symbol Region to the region you want to hide. This obviously will show chord symbols where you don’t want them. Now that the symbols are showing, select all of them, and in the Properties panel select Chord Symbols/Hidden. This will hide the symbols, but the staff is still showing due to the Chord Symbol Region. Delete the Chord Symbol Region and the staff will correctly be hidden where you want it.

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