Months ago I created an aleatoric measure in which one player is to play this passage that alternates single notes with two notes that are notated cross-staves. It’s been so long since I did this that I no longer remember how to get the stems of the two note chords to connect. Can someone refresh my memory on how to do this?
use m to cross notes to the lower staff and n to do the opposite.
Jesper
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Also described here:
Dear Lillie—I followed both your and Jesper’s instructions. I entered a passage in the empty measure, with a double note on every other note for the one player. Then I selected the bottom note that should appear on the staff below. I pressed M on the keyboard (in Write mode), and also from the Cross staff menu under Notations from the top pull down menus. Nothing happened. Even tried Alt-M. Still nothing. The passage remained the same. What is wrong?
Yes, a cursory example for me doesn’t present any issues – you should try resetting the cross-staff nature of notes and perhaps their stems directions, then try again.
I don’t know if this move did anything or not. I did make some progress. First, let me say that the Cross staff stem connection instructions are woefully unclear/misleading:
1, They do not address the issue of whether both staffs have to have the same key signature. This would be an issue if you wanted to cross a treble clef staff to a bass clef staff, which is the case in my original example.
2. The instruction of “use M or N” to cross notes to a different staff does not work at all. You must use Alt-M or Alt-N.
3. Pushing the notes to the lower staff still does not connect the notes from a single beam on the top staff using a single stem. The center beam/change stem direction controls do not work here either. My latest rendition still looks like there are two players with two different lines rather than a single player with a single line?
4. I am trying to duplicate the music from one file to a second file because one apparently cannot change the original player setup once a file has be created. But when I try to simply copy the original cross-staff passage—the one correctly notated— it will not copy correctly and inverts the beams, or puts the noteheads backward.
I don’t know if this move did anything or not. I did make some progress. First, let me say that the Cross staff stem connection instructions are woefully unclear:
1, They do not address the issue of whether both staffs have to have the same key signature. This would be an issue if you wanted to cross a treble clef staff to a bass clef staff, which is the case in my original example.
2. The instruction of “use M or N” to cross notes to a different staff does not work at all. You must use Alt-M or Alt-N.
Could you post a very short project (a few bars) in which M and N are not working? The only way we can help you get to the bottom of this is to inspect the actual setup.
I can only suspect that the two staves you’re trying to cross between could be held by different players. I have not seen the cross-staff commands fail otherwise.
Here’s what happens when I cut and paste from the other file:
Mark—Yes, the top staff is set up for player one, and the bottom staff is for player two: First marimba and Second marimba. The original file did not make this distinction. In the new file, I’m only trying to simplify the notation by having Player 1 use part of Player 2’s staff, as in the original example. Is this not possible, then?
I expect that if one had all stems pointing up (or down), this (using N and M to cross staves) would work. Trying to put the beams in between is currently beyond Dorico’s capability when a step contains two notes sounding simultaneously. (as the third eighth does above).
If you give one player 2 single staff marimba instruments, you should be able to use cross staff notes…
Derrick—How exactly, step-by-step, did you make this example? Is the top staff treble and the bottom staff bass? Did you write to just the top staff? When exactly did you press N or M? This is exactly what I want (see my first example at the top of this page), but I forgot how I did it (except I had not set up the players correctly).
Top staff is treble, lower staff bass. I typed all notes into the upper staff, selected the lower notes with CTRL + Click, and then pressed M to push them down to the lower staff while keeping them connected to the upper. (ALT + M would move the notes but detach them from the upper staff.)
Derrick—I followed your instructions to the letter. But when I followed by pressing M, nothing happened! When I tried Alt-M, it did as you indicated—the notes moved but they were detached from the upper staff. Why do you think this is happening? Is there some setup or layout switch that must be checked? I can’t get the selected notes to flip to the bottom staff for love nor money! Help!
We are trying and trying to help, but you have to post at least a short file in order for us to know what is happening for you! Cut down to even just 1 bar, with the Silence playback template applied. We need to inspect the setup, particularly the instrument(s) you are using.
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Mark—Here is the file in which I am trying to get measure 10 in the second movement (flow) to look like the measure at the top of this page, in which Player 1’s passage also incorporates some of Player 2’s on the bass staff below. I cannot get the lower notes to cross over to the second staff anymore. I hope this file contains all the information that you need.
Marimba Test.dorico (2.0 MB)
You can only cross staff to instruments held by the same player.
You have two players
Jesper
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Jesele—Player 1 is just using the lower staff for notes that would require many ledger lines below the staff. It can be done, as in the example at the top of the page. It’s just I forgot how to do it. Player 2 is playing tremolo whole notes.
It is unclear to us if you really have two players or just one. Here are two possible solutions for you.
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You could add a staff below just for your problem bar. (because you cannot have cross staff notes between two different players)
Marimba Test-edit1.dorico (1.6 MB)
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You could simply use a 2-staff instrument and a single player.
Marimba Test-edit2.dorico (1.8 MB)
Beyond that I’ve run out of ideas.