Percussion notation!
Please make it possible for staffs like "percussion 1" to provide notation for pitched percussion instruments. I need Glockenspiel, Xylophone, and Vibraphone parts in a concert band piece but having percussion 1 and 2 split those parts would be more convenient than having three staffs taking up much more space than necessary. Apparently using the "instrument change" text doesn't work, as it breaks the program if I try that. Thanks in advance.
Comments
Depending on a few variables, this should be rather simple in MS.
When you extract parts select new and call it "Percussion 1" and check the instruments you want included. If the parts never overlap, then you can hide empty staves and don't check "don't hide staves in first system" so you have only 1 staff. You can change the long and short names to nothing and use staff text to identify which instrument is being played. If there are long sections where no instrument is playing, you will need to adjust the line breaks so multi measure rests show up at the beginning or end of lines with music. If you have the xylophone play 3 measure followed by 24 measures of no music followed by 3 measures of glockenspiel, put a line break at the end of the last measure that has xylophone music on it. The next line will have a 24 measure rest followed by the start of the glockenspiel music.
If 2 instruments are played at a time, you will need to put a bracket like this [ from the bracket palette around all the instruments and a brace like this { around each individual instrument with multiple staffs if they are not already there. This will help keep the lines of music straight. Also make sure the bar lines on multi staved instruments extend over both staffs. These visuals will help to keep the separate instruments straight. Much of this should be automatic, but double check that they exist.
Instrument change should work with the instruments you listed since they are normally put on a single staff and the transposition in in octaves. You will need to change the clefs when changing instruments so the notes end up on the correct lines. The glockenspiel need the treble with 15 above it, the xylophone needs the treble with the 8 above it and the vibes need the normal treble clef. All of these are available on the advanced palette. Always start with the vibes to make the others work properly with the alternate clefs.