Staff Grouping

[peterqd]

In my score I have 3 percussion staves - Timpani, Percussion I and Percussion II. Each staff is intended to have one player but with instrument changes on the two Perc staves. Perc. I is primarily the Drum set but with Triangle and Tabourine, and Perc. II has Tub. Bells, Glock. and Suspended and Loose Cymbals.

I’d like the Timpani staff to be completely separate (i.e. never grouped with the other staves) and the two Percussion staves grouped together with one bracket and continuous barlines, and all the grouping to be consistent thoughout the score.

Currently the grouping is illogical and inconsistent. On page 1 all three staves are grouped together, on pages 2-4 the Timpani is grouped with Perc. I, and from then on it keeps changing.

What do I need to do please?

[peterqd]

Page 1

Page 2

Page 5 (correct!)

also, for some reason the full names of Perc. I & II are in capital letters on page 1 but lower case subsequently. Editing names in Setup mode they are lower case. I don’t know how to change it.

[charles_piano]

I’d try this:

1. Disable Instrument Changes
2. In Engrave Mode, on page 1, adjust your brackets the way you want
3. Re‑enable Instrument Changes.

Generally speaking, I’ve noticed that for global bracket changes on page 1, all staves need to be visible to avoid issues later on — meaning no instrument changes, no condensing, and the maximum number of divisi that will appear later in the score.

[Christian_R]

Hi @peterqd, here a possible setup:

Dorico file example:
2 percussions and timpani setup.dorico (1.5 MB)

• Use Player Groups to define the bracketing.
• Use Small Ensemble in Layout Options.
• Use instrument change with warnings if desired.
• Use Percussion legends if desired.
• Rename the Perc. 2 player (You can use the Player names as staff labels for Perc. 2, in Layout Options, if desired, but if an instrument plays over two systems, you don’t have any indication of which instrument is playing at start of the second system).

Setup and result:

Some of the options:

[peterqd]

Thankyou Charles & Christian, excellent help. My Brass Band template was based on a file I’d imported from Finale - I didn’t use a Dorico template or go through the Setup properly, and it’s my fault that I didn’t bother to learn the fine details of grouping and bracketting.

As for the staff names, I discovered the Percussion staves were set to use Player names instead of instrument names. I don’t know how that came about - possibly the same reason as the grouping.

Now that I know my way in Setup mode better, I’m going to build a new template for future use.

Thanks again!

[peterqd]

I have now started building my own new Brass Band template from scratch. I’ve opened the Dorico template and begun to personalise it, but now I’m hitting a problem I’d like some help with please.

The VST I want to use for most of the instruments is called Brass Band Soloists, which runs in Kontakt. As the name might suggest, it will only play one note at a time (i.e monophonic) but some of the staves in a BB score are often divisi, played by more than one player. The single Solo Cornet staff is usually read by 4 players and sometimes they all play different notes. Therefore I would like to create four Solo Cornet players in Setup, each with their own instance of Kontakt.

So this is the way the uncondensed score appears:

I have deleted the names for the three staves marked I, II and III. The numbers are added by Dorico but I don’t want them. Qu. 1 is how can I hde the player numbers please?

Secondly, when the score is condensed I get this:

The top staff is correct, apart from the numbers. But the players in the lower staff should not be condensed. I have unchecked “Enable Condensing” in Layout options. Qu.2 is how can I stop them condensing?

[charles_piano]

For cornets 1, 2 and 3, which need to be condensed with the first one, you can put each of them in a group — that will prevent the numbering:

For the solo cornet name, you’ll need to move it down a bit so the staff label is centered when the staves are condensed:

As for condensing, it depends on your instrument setup, but you should be able to create a condensing group in the Layout Options for the four soloists and exclude the others:

Result (Galley View/Page View):

[peterqd]

Charles, you really have been very helpful. I managed to work out the condensing issue, but how would I have known about putting them into groups without your help? Thankyou so much.