Working with instruments

Overview

The Instruments panel gives you control over your instruments and some basic staff properties without having to leave the score view. All of the instruments in your score will appear in this panel.

Accessing the panel

Open the panel by clicking on the Instruments tab:

If the Instruments tab is not visible, show it by selecting View -> Instruments, or by pressing F7.

Managing instruments

Adding instruments

Click Add at the top of the panel. This will open the Instruments dialog. You can also open this dialog by pressing I. See Choose instruments for more information.

Deleting instruments

Select an instrument and click the trash can icon at the top of the panel, or press Del. This removes the instrument entirely, along with all the music it contains.

Reordering instruments

Select an instrument and click the up/down buttons at the top of the panel to change its position in the score. Alternatively, drag the instrument up or down using the mouse.

Renaming instruments

Click the cog icon to the right of an instrument to show instrument name settings. Name on main score is the long name, usually used at the beginning of a score, and Abbreviated name is the short one, often used after the first system of a section. These can also be edited via Staff/Part properties. Part name is used at the top of a part.

To control where the long and short names are used (or to hide instrument labels entirely), use the settings in Format -> Style -> Score -> Instrument labels, rather than blanking out the names here.

Replacing instruments

To replace an instrument in the Instruments panel:

1. Click the cog icon to the right of the instrument

2. In the popup that appears, click Replace instrument

3. Select your desired replacement instrument in the dialog that appears

4. Click OK.

Managing staves

The Instruments panel can also be used to add staves to an existing instrument and configure some of their basic properties.

Initially, the panel only shows an entry for each instrument. To show the individual staves of an instrument, expand the instrument by clicking the small black triangle to the left of the instrument name. Staves are usually labelled according their default clef (for example, a piano will have a 'Treble clef' and 'Bass clef')

Adding a staff to an existing instrument

1. If necessary, expand the instrument to reveal its staves

2. Click Add staff.

The new staff is part of the same instrument but its notation is completely independent of its other staves. To create a staff which stays in sync with the notation of an existing staff, add a linked staff instead.

Adding a linked staff to an existing instrument

Staves which are linked together will keep their notation synchronized, so a change on one staff will be reflected on the other. However, the staves can have different staff styles, which makes this useful for creating staff notation alongside tablature notation for guitar, banjo, ukulele, etc.

To create a linked staff:

1. If necessary, expand the instrument to reveal its staves

2. Click the cog icon to the right of the stave

3. Click Create a linked staff

4. Click the cog icon on the newly-added staff to configure it, for example to change the Staff type, if required (see Configuring staves, below).

Deleting staves

1. If necessary, expand the instrument to reveal its staves

2. Select the staff you wish to delete

3. Click the trash can icon at the top of the panel, or press Del.

This will only work when an instrument has more than one stave. To delete the last staff, select and delete the instrument itself.

Reordering staves

To change the order of staves within an instrument, select a staff and click the up/down buttons at the top of the panel to move it, or drag it up or down using the mouse. Staves cannot be moved between instruments.

Configuring staves

You can configure some properties of individual staves by clicking the cog icon to the right of the staff name:

• Staff type allows you to choose between a Standard staff and a variety of predefined tablature types

• Small staff makes the staff small ('cue-size'); the size for small staves can be configured in Style -> Sizes

• Hide any measures that do not contain notation (cutaway) will prevent the staff from being drawn for any measures which are empty; see Cutaway staves for more details.

For more information about staff customization, see Staff/part properties.

Hiding instruments and staves

To hide or unhide an instrument, chick the eye icon to the left of the instrument label. This hides the instrument and all its staves completely.

To hide or unhide a specific staff:

1. If necessary, expand the instrument to reveal its staves

2. Click the eye icon to the left of the staff.

Hidden instruments and staves are not deleted, they are just hidden throughout the whole score and will not affect its layout. You can still create parts for hidden instruments.

A hidden instrument will not play back, but hidden staves will. If you wish to hide an instrument but still hear it, this can be achieved by hiding all of its staves individually, but not hiding the instrument itself.

If you only wish to hide instruments or staves when there is no music for them on a given system, see Showing staves only where needed.