Prevent transposition for x crossheads (claps)

Hi all,

I have a section where the wind instruments clap. I want to represent this by using x-noteheads on the middle stave line (regardless of transposition) without any playback.

I created a pitched note, right-clicked Notehead->Crosses->X-Noteheads. Then went to the bottom options and selected Supress Playback and ticked Always.

The problem is when I go to transposed instrument layouts, the notehead has moved from the centre line. Is there any option to clarify this is an unpitched note (or perhaps a better method altogether)?

Thanks for your time.

I remember doing this before, giving the players in question another instrument to hold in Setup mode, in this case percussion. I then assigned a handclap, and this way, they even get a warning via instrument change label that a handclap section is imminent.
You add the claps in galley mode, where all instruments a player holds are visible, and in the page later Dorico will switch instruments automagically…
And if you want, you can even have playback, which might be handy to illustrate the rhythm for a demo.

Benji

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Oh interesting. There is a hand-clap instrument.

You could get a fairly good result using this method, although it does feel a little over the top. I love minimal looking parts and don’t need to make a giant announcement for horns to clap, it’ll be pretty obvious in the context of the song.

I’ve done charts in the past where the horns will be playing on beat 1 and shout something on beat 4 in the same bar (also using an x-notehead on the centre stave). I’m worried using this method makes the bar look really dense. Is it possible to use this method and:

  1. Keep the clef rather than switch to percussion clef.
  2. Keep the key signature
  3. Keep 5 line staff
  4. Remove the key signature & clef on returning back to the original instrument

Well, instrument changes and such are a core concept of Dorico, you could actually edit the change labels so that they are not showing and wouldn’t clutter the score. You could probably also hide the clef change, make a 5-line staff for your “drum set” containing only the handclaps of course and also hide the returning clef. Give me a moment to illustrate… :wink: :+1:

Oh thanks!

Drum parts/staves in Dorico feel like a whole other world that I don’t quite have a confident grip on yet. So that’s why I’m hesitant!

Here ya go! I wasn’t able to suppress the clef change (yet), but the rest works as advertised… :wink: This is a Dorico 6 project, by the way… You’ll have to apply a Playback Template of your choosing!
The 5-line I did in layout options, the x-notehead overrides in the percussion kit editor and the labels are removed by using a custom label of " ".
Claps.dorico (1.3 MB)

Ahh! Thank you! That looks nice.

When I first gave it a go, I added Hand Claps to the player. But then when I went to edit instrument definition to explore changing stave lines and clefs, it wasn’t there. But for some reason it does allow you to change those settings if you add Percussion as an instrument instead.

I can use this method for the current score. How did you hide the text?

Still feels a little glitchy trying to do it in the same bar. So if I come across one where I need to shout on a single beat in the same bar as notes, I might just use an X-Notehead and then try and remember to move it up and down before exporting as PDF.

On a side note, I’ve got Dorico 5 so I was thrilled to see that I was allowed to open the part. Huge points to Steinberg! Boy does that give me trust in a company!

In Engrave Mode, you can give the label a custom text, I used a space! Like the one between words… :wink:

Ahh good tip. Thanks!

And: In setup mode, you can go to Instrument definition and give the percussion kit an Invisible Clef, so that would help also!
Doesn’t prevent the G-Clef from returning, I guess… :wink:

Oh didn’t spot that clef. That works nicely for avoiding the percussion clef bloat!

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FWIW, since @YourMusic.Pro’s solution looks great :

Easier but without playback, you can create a slashed voice for these notes. It doesn’t move with transposition.

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