Possible to add empty staves after music? Creating an educational composition exercise

Dorico
1

Hi,
I’m trying to score up a composition type exercise in Dorico 5.1 on Mac. There is a given opening and then the student will have to write the remaining music. I’ve managed a decent stab at it but I’m wondering if there is a better way to do it or anyone has done anything similar?

Here is my attempt below (left score is hand written and right is Dorico attempt). It’d be nice to be able to remove the minim rests, the bar lines and also the clef and key signature for the remaining lines of manuscript.

Thanks all.

Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 20.20.58
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2
  1. Use the system track to delete from bar 3 to the end of the flow.
  2. In Layout options>Page setup>Flows>After end of final flow: check both options a) Fill frame with blank staves b) Show blank staves in system identical to final flow, and choose “Exclude clefs”
  3. Select the rests and remove it (edit>remove rests).
  4. In Notation options>Barlines>Automatic barline at the end of the flow: select “No barline”
1 Like
3

Fantastic, thank you very much! Thought this would be a big pain so pleased to see it’s possible.

Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 20.54.05
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4

Alex, additionally it might be a good idea to increase the Staff Size in Layout Options f.e. up to Rastral 9. The bigger staves are better for handwritten music.

5

Ah yes that’s a brilliant point thank you! I’ll increase the sizing.

6

A bit of an add on, but is there a way to do it at say the beginning of a flow or in the middle? For example say I want to setup an exercise where a student needs to write a suitable introduction? Expecting this one to be a little more difficult if not impossible but thought I’d ask if anyone has a better way to do this once again. Thanks

Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 21.54.35
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7

If you set the starts voice property on the first notes in bar 5, then the preceding rests should disappear.

8

Indeed they do, however the staves then no longer span the full width of the page…

9

What happens if you set Layout Options>Staves and Systems>Casting off to (say) 2,3 or 4?

10

Doesn’t seem to really worth either unfortunately. I can add a system break at each empty bar to get something kind of half there, it just doesn’t like me getting rid of the rests. I’ll upload the file below incase anyone feels like having a play.

Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 22.37.57
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Composition Exercise 2.dorico (1.0 MB)

11

You could just write half dotted notes in the bars you want to be empty, and in Engrave mode hide the noteheads and stems.

1 Like
12

OK. Dorico needs ‘something’ in a system to maintain spacing. (else it squishes up the barlines). So just enter some notes, the hide noteheads and stems…
Composition Exercise 2-edit.dorico (961.6 KB)

1 Like
13

There is a layout option to not show bar rests, I think this should work for you.

1 Like
14

(Dang. It’s so hard to keep up with new capabilities!)

1 Like
15

Janus, dang dang dangelong :wink:
this already exists since Dorico version 1:

2 Likes
16

Ah yes, both solutions will work thanks. I’d forgotten about the ability to hide empty bar rests in the layout options. Half the time it’s know what I want to achieve and finding the best solution from features I don’t use often enough to remember they’re there.