Edit staff, voice, and assign parameters for a staff style

In the Staff section of the Staff Style window, do any of the following:

• Change the clef: Choose a clef from the Clef pop-up menu. In addition to the standard clefs, there are some additional options:

  • Drum.0 to Drum.8: Staffs with 0 to 8 lines and a neutral percussion clef. The relationship of MIDI note pitches to the top line of all staffs corresponds to the top line in a regular bass clef (A2). No accidentals are displayed in these drum staffs. Drum.0 also omits any ledger lines. These clefs are often used in mapped drum styles, where the vertical position of a note on the staff doesn’t correspond to pitch, but is determined by different drum map parameters. See Use drum notation with mapped staff styles for more information on mapped drum styles.

  • no clef.0 to no clef.8: Like the Drum.0 to Drum.8 staffs, but without a clef.

  • TAB Guitar and TAB Bass: Twelve different options for displaying notes as guitar or bass tablature. Tablature tuning sets are defined and edited in the Tablature window (Layout > Guitar Tablature).

• Show or hide the key signatureA: Select the Key checkbox for the staff.

  When the Key checkbox is unselected, the staff is displayed without a key signature. Accidentals are placed directly beside all affected notes. This can be used, for example, for transposed French horn parts, which are sometimes written without a key signature.

• Change the distance to adjacent staffs: Drag the upper and lower space values up or down. The upper value controls the space above staffs, and the lower value controls the space below staffs. For the top and bottom staffs in a full score, this controls the page margins.

  Tip:  You can also change the vertical distance above the staff directly in the score, by dragging the staff up or down (at the clef). The distance below the staff can also be edited in the score, but only for the bottom staff in the score display (or for a single staff). You drag the bottom line of the score display with the pointer.

• Change the staff size: Drag the size value up or down.

  The Size parameter sets the size of the staff, and the notes and symbols (including slurs and ties) displayed on the staff. There are 16 sizes available (0–15). Here are some size recommendations:

  • For regular instrument parts and lead sheets, use size 7 or 8.

  • The staff size you should use in full scores depends on the number of staffs in the score, and the size and format of the paper being used. When using A4 or US letter paper: full orchestra: 2, big band: 3, wind quintet: 4.

  Note:  The size of all staffs in a score set can also be affected by the Scale parameter in the Score Sets window. (See Score sets overview.) This makes it possible to use the same sizes for both the whole score, and parts of a piece.

• Change the display transposition: Drag the transpose value up or down in semitones.

  Display transposition does not affect playback of notes, but only how they appear in the score. If a staff contains chord symbols, these are also transposed accordingly. If the Automatic Key Transposition project setting, in the Clefs & Signatures pane, is turned on (which is the default), key signatures are also transposed.

In the Voice section of the Staff Style window, do any of the following:

• Change how rests are displayed: Choose a value from the Rest pop-up menu. Automatic display of rests can be turned off (by choosing Hide), or set to display beat slashes instead of rests (by choosing Slash). This is useful for rhythm section parts, and improvised solos. In this situation, the number of slashes per bar is determined by the nominator in the time signature (4 slashes in 4/4-time, 6 slashes in 6/8-time, and so on). Inserted notes and symbols are still displayed, but automatic rests are shown only if shorter than one beat. You can insert user rests manually, to replace individual beat slashes, if needed.

• Set the stem direction: Choose a value from the Stem pop-up menu. The default setting is Auto. Up or Down forces all stems, regardless of pitch, in the corresponding direction. Hide makes all stems (and beams and flags) invisible.

• Set the stem position: Choose a value from the Stem Pos. pop-up menu.

• Set the vertical direction for ties: Choose a value from the Tie pop-up menu. The default setting is Auto. Up or Down forces all ties in the corresponding direction.

• Set the direction for tuplet brackets and numbers: Choose a value from the Tuplet pop-up menu. The default setting is Auto. Up or Down forces all N-tuplet brackets and numbers in the corresponding direction. Hide prevents the automatic display of triplet brackets and numbers. In this situation, the numbers are still displayed in brackets on the screen, to allow edits to these triplets. These bracketed numbers do not appear, however, on the printout.

  If you set this parameter to Hide, you can still make particular triplets visible: double-click the bracketed number (3) to open a tuplet dialog. If you close this dialog by clicking OK, you convert the automatically displayed triplet to a forced triplet, which is displayed in accordance with the parameters set in the dialog.

• Set the appearance of beams: Choose a value from the Beam pop-up menu. The default Slant setting allows slanted beams. Horiz. only allows horizontal beams. Vocal prevents the display of beams, as is typical in classical vocal parts, where notes are only displayed with flags.

• Set the color for notes: Choose a value from the Color pop-up palette. The color options are Black (“---”), Pitch, Velocity, and the 16 colors of the Color palette. (See Colors settings.)

  These settings only affect regions if the View > Colors > Normal item is chosen in the Score Editor (the default setting).

• Set the appearance of note heads: Choose a value from the Head pop-up menu. You can display note heads as normal, show note names or finger names, or hide the note heads completely.

The Stem Pos. and Color parameters are available when Additional Score Options is selected in the Advanced preferences pane.

In the Assign section of the Staff Style window, do any of the following:

• Set the MIDI channel assignment for a voice: Drag the channel value up or down.

• Set the split point between voices: Drag the split value up or down.

For complete information about the Chan and Split parameters of the Staff Style window, see Assign notes to voices and staffs