Staff Spacing

• Apr 26, 2015 - 00:13

Hello! I have v. 2.0. I'm working on a score for full orchestra. I'd like to organize the staff spacing so that different sections (i.e. brass, woodwinds, percussion, strings, etc.) are slightly separated. How do I space just one staff? When I looked this up, I could only find how to space out all the staves, which isn't really helpful.
Thanks in advance,
Kaine


Comments

Click on a measure in the first stave of your second group. Right-click and choose "Stave Properties". Change the value of "Extra distance above stave". Repeat for other groups.

The shortcut for the above operation: Shift+drag the first staff of the group downwards. So, click the top horn pars, shift+drag down, then do the same for violin 1, etc.

In reply to by underquark

True. I use the drag method when I am only doing the for one staff and don't need consistency. If I wanted the *same* amount of extra space between woodwinds and brass as between brass and strings, I'd use Staff Properties. I also use Staff Properties if I need to reset to 0.

Kaine, if I could ask you a personal question, what exactly is your orchestration? Most specifically, how many percussion parts/instruments? This is a question of burning interest to me, because I'm trying to create an ideal orchestral template for future releases of MuseScore. The broader the sample base, the better able to serve people's needs.

In reply to by Isaac Weiss

Hi Zack (I'm assuming that's your name), I'm actually making a score that accompanies a violoncello solo. It's Elgar's concerto in E minor, Op. 85. Right now, though, I have the solo violoncello, flute, piccolo, oboe, clarinet in A, bassoon, horn in F, trumpet in C, trombone, tuba, timpani, violins I and II, viola, violoncello, and contrabass. I don't think this should be everything in an orchestra in most cases, though. The style of this piece doesn't require any other instruments. It's mostly quiet, and focuses on the solo. So, snare drums and cymbals aren't necessary in this style. Your idea is a good one, though. I think it should be more like you have every possible instrument, and you could take any unnecessary instruments off, so that when you have special pieces like this, you could choose only what you needed, and not have to search through all the instruments in order to find some other instrument, unless it's unique and unusual in a typical orchestra setting. I would also add piano, harpsichord, harp, snare and bass drums, cymbals, maybe a gong, other flutes and recorders, the typical B♭ clarinet, maybe even a bass clarinet, English horn, perhaps some saxophones, B♭ trumpet, tubular bells, and xylophone or marimba. It just totally depends on the style (style as in happy/sad or Romantic/Classical/Baroque). I hope that helps!
Regards, Kaine
P.S. this is just the opinion of a fourteen-year-old, so...
Still, hope it helps. :)

In reply to by kaineconrad@gm…

Thank you! I very much appreciate your suggestions. And I assume your name is Kaine. :-)

(By the way, it could potentially be very risky to publicly use your full name and email address and reveal that you're a minor on the internet. I hope that most MuseScore users are fairly good people, but you never know. You'll notice that I don't tell you whether or not I'm almost the same age as you. ;-) )

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