Hello,
I need to write a score with explanation of advanced techniques before the score itself. I wish to add one or two empty staves on a blank page that I would be able to write on alongside text. I can’t seem to find how to do it. Can someone help me ?
Thanks
Philippe
Create a Custom Page Template (Master Page) with the music and text frames arranged as you need. Put the music excerpts into a separate flow that can be added to the music frame on your custom page but deselected from the primary first and default page templates.
Or simply draw in a music frame (either just on one page, or as a page template if you want to reuse the page setup on more than one page) and set it to show blank staves.
Hello ! Thanks for your response. I did end up using exactly what you said about having a flow at the end of my piece and inputing it into the instruction page. I had to make one flow per technique I wanted to show off since engraving options seems to be limited in music frames. (I’m quite particular about my presentation)
It feels like a work around and is quite time consuming but I made it work.
Thanks a lot for that tip
!
Hello Lillie !
Thanks for the follow up. I actually saw this option but I could not seem to write directly in the music frame in question when blank staffs were enabled.
If I could do that it would be a dream. Maybe I’m missing something ?
Thanks !
The blank staves can only be blank, within Dorico. Any writing is anticipated to be done elsewhere, such as physically on a printed copy.
For an “explanation of advanced techniques”, a separate flow in the project in which you write the music and add the notations you want to explain is the best bet (as Derrek has already suggested, and which I should have re-read a bit more closely before jumping in on the keywords “empty staves”!).
To prevent this separate flow for demonstration purposes also appearing at the end of the layout after the main piece, edit the Default page template and remove your demo-notation-flow from the MA frame chain. That will ensure it only appears in frames you specifically select it to appear in, ie on your explanatory page.
Sorry I missed that you wanted blank staves.
No worries. The solution is helping for the time being.
Thanks
Hello ! Thanks again for the follow up
The best solution would be to be able to input a blank staff, choose a clef and be able to ajust the music within it. The cherry on top would be to be able to save that frame or link it somehow to be able re-input it in another layout. Say a score with explanation for contemporary technique for a whole orchestra but being able to isolate only the techniques for the brass to include them in the parts themselfes.
Having to use music coming from a flow causes a lot of problems (I red the article you linked but it does not seem to adress those). First if I put more than one bar even if I lock them on different systems on the page in the flow, it will appear on one system in the music frame on the blank page. If I wish to have several small staff that represent say a symbol each with all different clefs spread around the page, I need to make one flow per system or else I have no control over the result.
Also, say I write a technique on the trumpet in a seperate flow for the instructions. I know that there’s a way to make it appear both on the score and on the trumpet part but if I want to make it appear on the trombone part I would have to make another flow with the trombone and include that. Maybe I’m not getting it correctly which is totally possible. Is there another way ?
I’m not shure I’m explaining the situation correctly. My english is not perfect 
You can use one flow for this: set up a page template with a music frame set to display the “notation explanation” flow, and use that page template in whichever layout you want, Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba, Strings – all of them if you like. If you need different techniques for each instrument family, you can have multiple instruments/staves in your demonstration flow and use frame selectors to pick which flow and which instruments appear wherever.
Flows can be very flexible. You can control their formatting (which notes fit in each system etc) in each layout independently, and in each frame chain independently. So yes, the system breaks you setup in the score won’t also appear in the separate frame chain – if you want that, input them again there. In Dorico, just because stuff appears one way automatically or by default, rarely means that’s how it “has” to be.
If you want to share an example of exactly what you want to achieve, people here can give more precise advice. For now, here’s a video that demonstrates one way flows can be flexible:
