I am trying to create a click track cue staff. Ideally, this would be a staff with no line and would be hidden at most times. This would be so that players and / or conductor will know what the click and cue (counting in the click track) is doing during meter and tempo changes
See the example score below.
In Sibelius, I was able to do this with a “no instrument (hidden)” staff so it would only show up in places where I put click cues in.
Does anyone have any experience doing this in Dorico and might be able to share some tips? Thanks in advance.
ffI have also posted this in the FB group but have unfortunately not found any solutions there.
IIRC, Leo Nicholson (@pianoleo) posted a file in the FB Dorico page that you can download with a 0-line instrument that could fit your purpose here. Hope it helps!
Thanks! I’ll try it out
I’m not sure that 0-line is the solution though, because I can’t figure out what to do with the barline connecting the staves.
A 0-line staff should work if anyone can solve that problem …
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This is a wild guess, and I really don’t know if it will work, but -
Have a look in Engraving Options > Barlines > Ossias.
My thinking is that it might work if it is possible to
- have a 0-line staff as an ossia
- make the 0-line staff at the size you want
- have an ossia that early in the music, ie in the very first bar, without the barline join at the start of the system
The Ossias section gives the option of showing or not showing barlines at the start and end of the ossia, and joining or not joining the ossia’s barlines with the main staff.
Way too convoluted. Just use MusGlyphs and staff text (or lyrics!). You can hide it as needed in certain layouts.
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Hi Dan. I was thinking exactly about this, but was wondering whether it could create the correct beams for the quavers. If it does, it’s really wonderful 
Oops… well, it can do X noteheads for quarters, or beamed eighths, but not both. If the OP can live with regular noteheads, it’s pretty easy.
In any case, a hidden staff could present all sorts of unexpected issues, I think. Text would be simplest.
This definitely seems to be the simplest and most flexible solution. I am an early adopter of MuseGlyphs and it’s great. Dan, any plans to introduce X noteheads to beamed 8ths in a future update?
I might. I’ve pretty much been done with MusGlyphs, but the requests are piling up, so maybe it’s time for 3.0.
The main problem here is that your eighths notes are not linked to the music — I’m thinking about the fourth and fifth bars in the OP’s example. It would require individual eighth notes that beam together, and this must be done using Dorico’s capabilities, I think. That’s why I ruled the font solution out.
Re-opening this issue, which I have mostly SOLVED.
My solution has been to edit the instruments.xml file and to change an instrument I never use to have a 0 line staff.
I am then able to add cues to the click track above any staff in a part by simply using the shift-U popover.
However, this seems to interfere with stem direction if there is existing music in the bar where I add the cue. Any tips on improving this solution?
