I can move a part to a staff above or below the current staff using FN+ALT+N (up) or FN+ALT+M (down). That’s great but I very frequently want to copy a part to the next staff below or above.
I know this can be done using menus, but a quick keyboard shortcut would save me a lot of time.
Example: I write a 1st violin part, copy it down to the seconds, and then edit the notes. I repeated the process by copying the 2nds down violas and then editing. This is obviously useful in horn parts, flute trios, etc.
Copy and paste works, of course. I just thought there might be a special fast command.
I haven’t done this for a while, but here is my memory of what I did in this situation.
After making a selection I firstly duplicate it to the staff above or below and then move it to the next staff. In the initial copy it will merge with the music in that staff, but those notes will return to normal when the move command is invoked. I use key command shortcuts for both actions so it is quite a speedy two-step operation.
If the commands were called “Copy to staff Below/Above” I think they’d be a bit easier to find, but they’re there.
EDIT: I forgot, but what @StevenJones01 points out is also correct: if there are already existing notes in the staves above/below, they will be merged with the notes you copy to them rather than overwritten like with the Repeat command, alt/opt+click or regular copy/paste (perhaps that’s why the command is called Duplicate?). I believe there have been topics about this behavior on the forum as well.
