Multiple time signatures

With the following technique, you can create a score in which each staff has a different time signature. The staves won’t play back in different meters, but the music in all staves will be spaced (and beamed) correctly.

To create multiple time signatures

1. Click the Staff tool  , and double click the first staff whose time signature you want to make independent. The Staff Attributes dialog box for the selected staff appears.
2. Under the heading Independent Elements, select Time Signature. You have to click this checkbox for each staff that will be in an independent time. If you have several staves to prepare this way, don’t exit the Staff Attributes dialog box; choose the next staff from the drop-down list at the top of the dialog box.
3. Click OK (or press ENTER). You return to the document. If you now click the Time Signature tool, a handle appears on every staff you’ve “enabled” to have an independent time signature. To change the time signature for an “independent time signature” staff, click the Time Signature tool, and then click a measure of it. The Time Signature dialog box appears, so that you can set the time in the usual way.

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