Thick lines between staves

[robison_p13]

I am notesetting a piece that has thick lines between staves, indicating that instead of specific notes being played, the player should simply play a mass of notes within the parameters of that line. (See the attached image.) However, I cannot figure out how to place the vertical line. I’ve tried following the directions, but I’m apparently missing something! Can someone help me understand the process, please?

[jesele]

You could use coordination lines.

Jesper

In Engrave mode.

Created a thick vertical line first.

[asherber]

In addition to @jesele’s suggestion, you could see if either of these posts about cluster notation help.

Piano Clusters

Hello! This is the first time I am writing at this forum. I started working with Dorico 3.5 a week ago, and there are still some things that are not so clear to me. For example: How can I create a cluster in low register in the piano?

Piano clusters for whole notes

thanks, this is great, but it actually solved itself in my piece anyways. Thanks for the help though

[Zalde]

An alternative to @jesele’s method could be to use notes with square noteheads (Edit>Notations>Notehead>Round and Square>Rectangular Noteheads, or from the context menu). combined with hidden tuplets.

I added tuplets of 5 sixteenth notes that span the length of each bar. Then I added a quarter note cluster with force duration, along with a single sixteenth note equal to the highest and lowest notes, to accomodate the ties (which are actually slurs in this case because I preferred that look). Hide the ledger lines and stems in Engrave mode. You’ll also have to adjust the position of the dynamics in Engrave mode.

Edit: just found out you’d have to manually adjust vertical spacing to prevent a gap from appearing between the two staves, I updated the attachment.

clusters.dorico (534.4 KB)

Another edit: I didn’t like the mismatch between the ends of the slurs compared to the hairpins. So I changed the tuplets into 1q tuplets and added the hidden note as a grace note before the barline. Only drawback of that method is you can’t use it in the final bar of the piece.

clusters (hidden grace notes).dorico (541.7 KB)