Hi. I would like to have the list of all the instruments each percussionist will be playing during the piece (similar to the image below). I think one option in Dorico would be going to Setup mode, choose the instruments and add group. However, the group name appears on all pages. Would there be a way that the group name only appears on the first page? Or any other tips to group the percussion instruments per player?
Lots of people just edit the name of the first Instrument (edit) so that it looks like the formatting you desire (without the need for groups).
I don’t think there’s an easy way to make the “Percussion” text larger than the instrument list.
Adding on that, I inserted some random notes just to test the group names.
Full names are “Percussion 1” and “Percussion 2” and short names are “P1” and “P2”.
- 1st system: full names appearing.
- 2nd system: full names also appearing (shouldn’t be the short names?)
- 3rd system: only the bottom instrument of the group plays, and no group name appears. I suppose that’s the default.
- 4th system: only the top instrument of the group plays. Short name (P1) appears for the first, but P2 doesn’t appear for the other. Shouldn’t it appear for both or for none instead of appearing for only one of them?
I guess so but I’m not sure, sorry.
I just added an edit in my previous post about labelling the first Instrument rather than the Player
You can’t hide player group labels after the first system, and for this style of staff labelling (where essentially you want to show both the player name and all the instruments it holds but just on the first system), there isn’t an easy option to turn on for that.
You might be able to find similar discussions by searching here on the forum, with alternative ways of getting the desired end result.
Ok, thanks. What about the behavior of the group names I sent in the image, with the full names (not the short) appearing in system 2, no name on system 3 and only one short name on system 4 (not for the second)?
Player group names don’t follow staff label options for their length, instead they only use short player group names when there isn’t enough space for the long ones.
I would expect them to show even if only one player in the group’s staves is appearing though. Perhaps you could share the project that’s demonstrating the issue for someone to look into?
Coe,
Using your test file, I noticed two things:
First, it appears that short names appearing after the first system are for instrument (player) names, not Group names.
Second, the P1 changes to Percussion 1 (Percussion 2) in the group names if notes are added which gives Dorico more room to have this full text shown. Dorcio seems to modify what it shows in print based on room available. I added notes to your test file to see the effect. Alternatively, perhaps manual staff spacing giving more room could be done to keep group names appearing. (See attached).
Perc group test added notes.dorico (774.0 KB)
Thanks for taking the time to analyse and make experiments with the test file. I appreciate it.
Regarding the first point, I am not sure I understood it. How do we know it’s instrument names, not group names? I added groups and wrote a name for each, so, supposedly, it should be group names, but I don’t know (on red in the image).
Concerning the second point, it seems logical that Dorico would work related to how much room it had. However, when there is only one instrument per group appearing, it’s the same room for the text. I would understand that it only appears P1 and P2. Yet P1 appears but P2 doesn’t (on blue in the image). So, I am not sure what Dorico is doing.
Coe,
What I’m saying in the first point is that is what I am observing… that only the instrument names are changing to their short form.
Also, I don’t think you understood completely the 2nd observation I had. As more and more notes are added, there is enough content to get an additional staff in the group (Timpani AND Snare in your example). So I am observing that Dorico has enough room to display “Perc. 1” and not just “P.1” To further clarify what I’m seeing, check out one more modification to your original which shows the effect of having snare drum notes in bar 52. You will see that “Perc.1” is displaying instead of the truncated “P1” What I believe is happening is Dorico doesn’t have room to display “Perc.1” so that, in the case of a single staff, displays the first and last letters of “Perc.1” which displays as “P1”. These are just my observations… not an official statement of what Dorico is programmed to do (as I don’t have that information).
As far as “P1 and P2. Yet P1 appears but P2 doesn’t (on blue in the image). So, I am not sure what Dorico is doing.” I notice that P2 is a single line staff. If it were a 5-line staff, I have a feeling you would see “P2” (just an educated guess)! And if this system had content that would need two 5-line staves, it would most likely display as “Perc2”.
See attached file “Perc group test added notes 2” showing the additional snare drum notes to see this effect.
Also, notice what happens to bar 52 if I manually shrink the space between staves. “Perc1” gets displayed as “P1”. I’m not saying you did this, only suggesting that Dorico is automatically doing this at certain times.
Perc group test added notes2.dorico (791.0 KB)