How best handle movements with different numbers of staves?

• Aug 3, 2018 - 23:32

A piano sonata, with three staves instead of two for a couple of movements. Best done as one score (if so how) or one for each mov't?

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• Aug 4, 2018 - 09:31

Thanks both. I was aware of that option, just wondered if there was any better way (I'm not keen on the way you sometimes have to turn it on and off, and the effect this has on layout of the sections without the extra stave, even if that effect is temporary!).
Actually this score has a LOT of notes so I'm currently thinking of keeping the movements in separate scores anyway and using the "album manager" to link them together (though I've no previous with that... will it work?).

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• Aug 4, 2018 - 13:52

The album manager will be problematic due to the different number of staves. You could manually combine the movements after you are done by using copy and paste. MuseScore will automatically add measures to accommodate the paste. In your final destination score you will of course need a three staff instrument and use Hide Empty Staves to make it look correct.

The problem with using a temporary staff is that it must be visible to add notes to it, there is no way around this. My advice is to never worry about how the final layout will look until all of the notes are entered. I usually do Symphonies with a lot of staves. I enter them in continuous view, which is unnecessary on a piano sonata, then turn on Hide empty staves in page view to prevent pages full of 40 empty staves and 5 with notes. The principle is the same. Don't stress over what isn't important. When entering note, worry about getting the right notes entered. Afterward worry about perfecting the layout.

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