Score Layout?

Hi,

I have got to take a score of some music I have composed to an audition.

If the instrument is not playing for the majority of the piece, do you hide the empty Staves?

My notation is in Sibelius (which is OK for the audition), I noticed the hide empty Staves feature in Sibelius and was wondering if I should use this for the notation or is this not very professional?

I hope I explained it well enough.:D

Thank you for your help.

Darren.

Hiding empty staves is fine and common, if you do it consistently. There are just two things you should keep in mind:

- As Bolanos mentioned: On the very first page of the score, all instruments should be displayed, even if they don't play. (That's mainly to give the reader complete information on what instruments play in the piece.)

- If the score layout changes from page to page, it gets quite confusing. So generally, only do this when an instrument doesn't play for quite some time, and don't make every single page different. Sometimes it may still be better to keep all staves throughout the piece. (But at the same time, it's just a waste of space if throughout the majority of the piece only 5 instruments play, and you have 20 empty staves just sitting around.)

The main concern (as always with notation) should be readability. Consider yourself the conductor of the piece and think of what would be helpful and what wouldn't.

If you're referring to the temporary blanking out of staves however (i.e. not actually removing a staff, just making it invisible, sometimes in the middle of a page), that's a different thing alltogether and isn't quite as common. It is used though by various composers in the 20th/21st century, like Lutoslawski, Stockhausen, Kagel, Penderecki, etc. Again, the main thing here is being consistent and asking yourself what the most logical and readable option is.

Hi Everyone,

Thank you for your help, it has helped a lot.

Thanks again.

Darren.

One more question.

When the instrument is about to play later in the piece, do you put in a few bars before to prepare?

Thank you.

Darren.