3.7. Add Edit or Remove Instruments

Add, Edit, or Remove Instruments

i. How to do it: in the Score, right-click a Section's name and select Create child Part from the contextual menu. Then, in the Editor, select a value from the Instrument drop-down.

ii. Hints:

• if no Section name is available on the current page, you can navigate to another page or use the Project to select a Section node. Afterwards, click the Create element button in the Toolbar and, eventually, choose an instrument from the Editor;

• divisi instruments: to add Violin - 1 and Violin - 2 to your score, create two Parts, and set Violin as their Instrument. The two Violins will be stacked together and receive a numeric suffix;

• you could also use the Number of staves property (available in the Editor) to create "fake" divisi instruments, e.g., create one Flute part and set its Number of staves to 3 to quickly add Flute - 1, Flute - 2 and Flute - 3 to the score; use Clefs to add or rearrange the clefs for your divisi. You will not be able to delete the "fake" divisi individually, though: if this is a concern, create "real" divisi instead (add several Parts and choose the same instrument for all).

• to change the score order of an instrument, select its Part name and use the Nudge element... buttons in the Toolbar to move it up or down. Divisi instruments (e.g., Violin- 1 and Violin - 2) only move together: nudge the first divisi instrument to set the position of the group. They cannot be swapped either, but there are workarounds: — use Copy/Paste to swap their music instead — best for small regions, works for "fake" divisi too; — temporarily change the Instrument type of one of them (e.g., change Violin 2 to Flute), nudge to swap, then revert to correct Instrument (change back the Flute to Violin) — best for score wide changes, does not work for "fake" divisi.

• you could use the Number of staves e.g. to write an Organ part on two staves instead of three (i.e., omit the Pedal);

• see the Part Node (jump: TODO) for more details.

CHANGE INSTRUMENT

i. How to do it: in the Score, select a Part's name, then in the Editor, choose another value from the Instrument dropdown.

ii. Hints:

• changing instruments does not remove existing music; by best effort, music of the "old" instrument is fitted on "new" instrument's staves, using second voice if needed. Voices that do not fit are left unallocated. They show as voice 3, voice 4 and so on in the Project, and their Voice position property reads valid index not assigned in the Editor. You can "trade" an unallocated voice for one of the visible (allocated) voices by changing its Voice position and/or Voice staff property. See the jump: MOVE VOICE for more insight. Exceeding voices can be simply deleted (see jump: DELETE VOICE);

• Copy/Paste can be a better alternative to changing instrument when only partial transfer of music is needed, e.g., you have a line in the right hand staff of a Piano which you would like to move a Flute;

• you cannot individually change the Instrument type for "fake" divisi (sibling instruments added to the score by increasing the Number of staves of a single Part): they would all switch;

• "real" divisi (several Parts using the same type of Instrument) can be individually changed. In fact, you would use this technique as a workaround to swap, e.g., Violin - 1 with Violin - 2: — temporarily change Violin - 2 to an Instrument which is not present in your score, e.g., a Flute; — move the Flute above Violin 1 (using the Nudge element before in the Toolbar); — change the Flute back to a Violin. Read more about divisi instruments in the jump: ADD INSTRUMENT section;

• see the Part Node (jump: TODO) for more details.

DELETE INSTRUMENT

i. How to do it: in the Score, right-click a Part's name and select Delete element from the contextual menu. Confirm by clicking Yes if needed.

ii. Hints:

• you cannot delete the last standing instrument in your score. Add a replacement instrument first: as long as there are at least two instruments, any of them can be deleted;

• if you created "fake" divisi instruments by increasing the Number of staves property of a single Part, then you will not be able remove them individually. You can trim them down by lowering Number of staves, or remove them altogether by deleting the Part they all stemmed from.

• see the Part Node (jump: TODO) for more details.