How to hide instrument names at the beginning of new movements?

• May 12, 2025 - 07:33

Hi everyone,

I'm editing a score in MuseScore of a work that consists of 6 separate pieces, and each piece contains 2–3 movements. The instrumentation is for 2 violins, viola, cello, and piano.

At the very beginning of the score, I want the full instrument names to appear next to each staff (which is working fine). However, when a new movement starts—whether it’s in the same piece or a new one—I don’t want the instrument names to reappear. I’d like them to show only once, at the start of the entire score.

To separate the movements, I’ve added section breaks. But when a new section begins, MuseScore automatically shows the instrument names again, which I want to avoid.

Also, I’ve disabled the use of “short instrument names” in the staff/part properties, so only the "long instrument names" are active. That’s intentional—I want the long names at the very beginning of the score, but nowhere else.

Is there a way to stop MuseScore from re-displaying the instrument names after section breaks?

Thanks in advance!

Attachment Size
Hide instrument names.mscz 338.02 KB

Comments

Idea: remove the long and short instrument names, and replace them with simple text (Ctrl/Cmd + T) that you enter in the first measure of your score, and then move to the front of the staff?
See: 1Hide instrument names.mscz
NB: This, of course, removes the instrument name in the Layout panel, but names in Parts and Mixer are unaffected.

Other ways are:

  • add two more staves for cello and viola and hide "Empty staves within systems" for the following movements. Of course, move the notes from the original to the new staves. Delete the instrument names there.
  • Use only system breaks instead of section breaks. A horizontal frame can reduce the stretching of the previous measure.

If you select the section break you can disable the display of long instrument names in the following section by unticking the appropriate box in the properties panel.

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