Merging Staves

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Sometimes you may find it useful to merge two or more staves. For example, some MIDI files for Baroque keyboard pieces assign a separate staff to each voice in a hand, rather than just a right- and left-hand staff. You will want to merge these staves into a single staff, and then use the Split Hands command to separate the now single staff into right- and left-hand staves.

If you intention is to produce a piano reduction of a score of multiple instruments or vocal parts, then you can use the Prepare Piano Reduction command in the Part menu. It basically combines the Merge Staves command and the Split Hands command into one easy step. For details, see Preparing a Piano Reduction of a Score.

When Composer merges staves, it merges both the underlying MIDI performance and the visible notation. The merging of the notation can become complicated. For example, if one staff has triplets, and another quintuplets, and another dotted rhythms, the merging of the rhythms could result in more than the maximum of two voices (upper and lower voices with stems pointing up and down) supported by Composer. In this case, Composer attempts to simplify the displayed rhythms; but it will not change the underlying MIDI performance-- the actual timing of the played notes.

To merge two or more staves:

1.	If the staff controls are visible, then click the Staff Selection button to select the first staff.

Then while holding down the SHIFT key, click the Staff Selection button for another staff. These two staves and all of the staves in between will be selected.

2.	Choose the Merge Staves command from the Staff menu.

-- OR --

Type "qms" for Quick Merge Staves.

Composer will display the Merge Staves dialog box.

3.	In the Merge Staves dialog box, confirm the staves you selected in step #1.

-- OR --

Select the staves that you wish to merge.

4.	Also, in the Merge Staves dialog box, you may wish to click the Transcription Options button. The transcription options will apply to the newly merged staff. The determine whether:

Standard versus jazz (swing) rhythm notation will be used.

Single voices or split (upper and lower) voices will be detected and notated.

Overlaps of notes will be removed to reduce the number of ties in the score.

Rests smaller than a specified size (quarter, eighth, or sixteenth) will be removed.

Grace notes, trills and tremolos will be detected and notated.

For details about these options, see Transcription Options.

5.	Click the OK button.

Composer will merge the selected staves.