The staves run from left to right across the page, and the notes in each staff are written so that they are immediately above or below the notes which other instruments are playing at the same time. In other words, if you pick a note in the top staff and read vertically straight down, you’ll be able to see what every other instrument is playing at that point in the piece.
The staves are grouped together into a system, and when the right side of the page is reached, a new system is started below the first. Below is a textual representation of a score for flute and piano, which should clarify this.
System 1 | |||
Flute | Bar1 | Bar2 | Bar3 |
Piano [a] | Bar1 | Bar2 | Bar3 |
Piano [b] | Bar1 | Bar2 | Bar3 |
System2 | |||
Flute | Bar4 | Bar5 | Bar6 |
Piano [a] | Bar4 | Bar5 | Bar6 |
Piano [b] | Bar4 | Bar5 | Bar6 |
System items are so called because they affect every staff within the system. The following is a brief overview of the more common system items which can be added to a score:
System items will always be shown in every part. Remember that the word part refers to the music which is given to each player and has nothing to do with chords, two melodies in the same staff, or harmony.
The full score is a different matter. Some system items will appear on every staff, whereas other system items will only appear above certain staves. As a general rule, the system items which appear on every staff are the items which are placed within the lines of the staves themselves, such as time signatures, key signatures and repeat bar lines, whereas items which appear above or below the staff, such as tempo text, ritardando lines and rehearsal marks will only be written above the first staff in each of the major groups of instruments.
The Create > System Object Positions dialog lets you change which staves system items will appear above. It contains a list of all the staves in the score and items will appear above any staves which are selected in this list. There is also an option at the end of the list to have items appear below the bottom staff, which is sometimes done in film scores. (Note that this dialog will have no affect on system items which appear in all staves, such as time signatures and double bar lines.)
You cannot navigate to a system item directly, you must use the “system items” dialog (shortcut Alt+F2). This dialog can also be found in the Access menu (Ctrl+F1) or by going to Plug-ins > Access > System Items.
It contains a list of all the system items in the score, listed in the order in which they appear. The bar number and rhythmic position of the item is also shown in the list, after a brief description of the item.
To select a time signature you would do the following:
The initial key signatures of the score will not be shown in this dialog. This is because the initial key signature is not an item but a property of the staff itself. For more details see Key Signatures.
When you use the right or left arrows to move from note to note any system items which begin at the same time as the selected note will be spoken before the note itself is described, and any system items which begin before the start of the next note will be spoken after the selected note is described.
These announcements work in much the same way as the announcements for nearby staff items. The only real difference is that you have to use the system items dialog to reach system items.