Instruments and staves · Manual

This chapter shows how to build and change the ensemble of your score: add, remove and reorder instruments, set transpositions, clefs, key and time signatures, and manage measures. Most of it happens through the Staff tool (⌘8) and the Document menu, much like Finale’s Setup Wizard and Staff Tool.

Choose the Staff tool (⌘8, Ctrl+8 on Windows) and click a staff: its menu opens, with everything about that staff.

Rename “…”… and Abbreviated Name…: the full name appears on the first system, the short one on the following systems. If you don’t choose an abbreviation, Maestro derives one from the name (“Trumpet in B♭” → “Tpt.”, “Violin II” → “Vln. II”).
Instrument: changes the staff’s instrument (name, sound, clef, transposition).
Transposition: sets the staff’s transposition by hand.
Staff Size and the distance items for the staff above (see Staff distances).
Move Up / Move Down: reorder the staves.
Add Staff…, the items that join the next staff with a brace, bracket or sub-bracket, and Delete “…” to remove the instrument.

The same properties (name, abbreviation, instrument, sound, transposition, size, distance) are also in the Inspector (⌥⌘I, Ctrl+I on Windows) when a staff is selected.

Adding and removing instruments

Document → Add Staff… (or the same item in the staff menu) opens the list of instruments, with their family and staff type. The new instrument is added at the bottom of the score; then move it where you want with Move Up.
To remove an instrument: staff menu → Delete “name”. Undo it with ⌘Z.
Piano, harp and organ have two staves joined by a brace, with a single centered name.

To start from a complete ensemble, use the setup wizard in File → New Score… (see Getting started).

Brackets, braces and names

Instruments of the same family (woodwinds, brass, percussion, voices, strings…) added one after another are joined by a bracket, and barlines run through each group, breaking between groups. Numbered parts of the same instrument (Violin I and II, Horn I and II) get a thin sub-bracket.

Document → Bracket by Family recalculates all brackets.
From the staff menu you can add or remove a brace, bracket or sub-bracket between a staff and the next one.

Transposing instruments and concert pitch

B♭ trumpet and clarinet, saxophones, horn in F, and guitar and double bass at the octave are written transposed, each with its own key signature. Notes are stored at concert pitch, so playback doesn’t change.

View → Concert Pitch (⇧⌘K; from the menu on Windows) shows the whole score in C, as in Finale.
Change a staff’s transposition from the staff menu → Transposition or in the Inspector.
When you copy music from one staff to another, the notes land in the right key for the destination instrument.

Key, time and clef

Key signature: the Key Signature tool (⌘4), then click a measure; or Document → Key Signature… (⌥⌘K; from the menu on Windows). The key applies from that measure to the next change. Naturals cancel the old key at the change, and a courtesy key signature closes the previous system. Transposing instruments change their own written key.
Time signature: the Time Signature tool (⌘5) or Document → Time Signature… (⌥⌘T; from the menu on Windows). Notes in that stretch are rebarred, with ties across the barline where needed. You can write 4/4 as common time and 2/2 as cut time.
Clef: the Clef tool (⌘6), click a staff, then pick the clef in the menu. On the first measure it changes the starting clef; on a later measure it creates a clef change, drawn smaller (or in the system header, with a courtesy clef at the end of the previous system). The tenor clef is there too; Remove the Clef Change removes it.

You can also change the key and time signature of the selected measure in the Inspector.

Measures

Document → Add Measures… (⌥⌘M; from the menu on Windows) adds measures.
Document → Delete Selected Measures (⌘⌫; from the menu on Windows) deletes them from every staff.
With the Measure tool (⌘7), clicking a measure opens a menu: Insert a Measure before or after, Add Measures at the End…, Clear the Contents of Measure (the rest stays), Delete Measure.

Rehearsal marks, repeats, system breaks and instrument changes follow inserted or deleted measures.

Percussion and maps

The Drum Set instrument has a five-line staff with a percussion clef and “x” noteheads for cymbals and hi-hat. When you enter a note (Speedy, Simple Entry or a MIDI keyboard), you get the sound for that position: bass drum in the first space, snare in the third, hi-hat above the staff.

Other percussion instruments have their own staves: Latin and orchestral sets on five lines; congas, bongos, timbales, wood block and agogô on two lines; triangle, tambourine, claves, cowbell, maracas, cymbals, tam-tam and more on one line. Glockenspiel, xylophone, vibraphone, marimba and tubular bells are pitched percussion, written like ordinary instruments.

Staff menu → Percussion Instrument switches an existing staff to another instrument: the notes move to the new positions.
On percussion notes, + and − switch to the other sound at the same position (closed/open hi-hat, snare/cross stick).
Staff menu → Percussion Map…, like Finale’s Percussion Map Designer: for each sound choose the name, General MIDI note, staff position and notehead (normal, x, circled x, diamond, triangle), plus the number of staff lines. Add Sound and − add and remove sounds; Default Map goes back to the instrument’s own map. The map is saved with the score and is used for note entry too.

Tablature

For guitar and bass you can use the Guitar (TAB) and Electric Bass (TAB) instruments, choose the TAB clef in the clef menu, or select the instrument and use Document → Add Tablature: a tablature staff with the same notes appears below it, joined by a brace (it doesn’t play, so the guitar isn’t doubled).

Lines are strings (6, 4 or 5) and notes are fret numbers. Maestro picks strings and frets like a guitarist would: low positions, fingers within four frets, as little hand movement as possible. Notes out of range show “?”.
Edit → Tablature → Higher String / Lower String moves the selected notes to the neighboring string (on Windows the Tablature submenu is in the Edit menu, not in Notation).
Choose the tuning in the Inspector: standard guitar, Drop D, half step down, 4- and 5-string bass, ukulele.

Instrument changes

When a player switches instruments (alto sax → flute, trumpet → flugelhorn), select the measure and choose Document → Instrument Change…. From there the sound, transposition with its new key signature, clef if needed, range check and the staff name on later systems all change. The new instrument’s name appears above the measure, and a “To …” warning appears in the rests before the change.

Document → Remove Instrument Change removes it. You can’t place a change on the first measure (change the staff’s instrument instead), on percussion or on tablature.

Explode and merge staves

Document → Explode to Staves…, like Finale’s Explode: a staff holding several parts (Trumpets 1-2 in chords, or on different layers) becomes 2 to 8 staves (“Trumpet 1”, “Trumpet 2”…) joined by a sub-bracket. Parts are taken from the chord notes (the highest on the first staff) or from the layers. It works on the selected measures or the whole staff; the new staves go below the original or replace it.
Document → Merge Staves… does the opposite: select measures on 2–4 adjacent staves (click the first, ⇧-click the last) and they become a single staff, “Trumpet 1-2”. Where the rhythm matches, notes become chords; elsewhere they go on layers. Or choose layers every time.

Both undo in a single step.

Staff size

Staff menu → Staff Size: 100, 90, 85, 75, 65% or Other Size… (40 to 200%). The staff shrinks or grows with its notes, clefs and text in proportion, like Finale’s Resize tool: handy for a piano accompaniment under a vocal line, a cue staff or an ossia. Notes stay vertically aligned with the other staves. In extracted parts the staff returns to normal size.

To resize whole systems, see Layout and printing.

Slashes and repeat signs

Select the measures, choose the Measure tool (⌘7) and click the staff: the Notation of “…” submenu offers Slashes (one per beat), Rhythmic notation (the first layer’s rhythm with slash noteheads), Repeat the previous measure and Repeat the two previous measures. Normal brings back the notes.

Only the drawing changes: the written notes stay and still play back.

The staff menu