I often like to put entire passages across multiple staves inside square brackets, like this:
The way I usually do this is:
- Using the Lines tool, add vertical brackets on the top staff
- For bracket No.2 set the “Side” property to “Right”
- Move and stretch them in Engrave mode
The pitfalls with this method are:
- Any changes to layout require re-sizing and -positioning the brackets
- The “Side = Right” property doesn’t seem to recognise tied notes - in this example the No.2 bracket’s default position is to the right of the semibreve in the tie chain, not the minim. This means you need to ensure there isn’t a system break on the barline between the tied notes, otherwise the bracket appears off the edge of the previous system
It seems vertical lines must be attached to notes (like articulations), rather than a rhythmic position (like pedal lines). In the latter case you could add the bracket to the rest after the passage ends.
So I was just wondering if anyone might have found a better approach to solving this.