Percussion instrument clef change indicated far too early

Hi there, as a percussion player ‘changes instruments’ from unpitched to pitched, the new clef appears at the end of the first instrument’s material, not at the beginning of the new instrument’s ensuing material - is there a way to fix this? It seems odd having, for example, a treble clef appear that applies to material that doesn’t begin until many bars later. Thanks for any help.

I would also like an answer to this.
It’s very unattractive (and non-standard) to have the clef/staff change immediately after one instrument’s material, then leaving sometimes pages of the “wrong staff” until the first notes of an instrument change.

There have been a number of threads about where Dorico generally places the instrument change if you care to search…

…And many of those articles also admit that the current situation is not ideal for all, and some suggest ways to finesse it, Michel.

Unfortunately the recommended trick breaks multi-bar rests which just creates a new notational problem.

Thank you Janus!

If it’s just a clef and/or key sig issue, you can fix it. If it’s a staff issue like single to 5-line you can’t. For clef, you just need to make sure that the instrument you are changing to has the same clef, then Dorico won’t show a clef change. Below I have a player with Temple Blocks and Vibes. I have a percussion clef in the Vibes part so Dorico won’t show the clef change, even though it is changing the instrument. Then I manually add the treble clef change.

Here’s Galley view:

Here’s the part:

Adding the percussion clef to the Vibes part before the “early” instrument change hides the clef change in the part. The same thing can be done with an independent key signature too. It would be really nice if the option for a “late” instrument change could make it into Dorico 5. The way Dorico currently does it is simply wrong in jazz and musical theater work.

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Ahhhh this will work. Thanks Fred. +1 for a Dorico 5 feature, hopefully.

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