Dot Your I’s, Tie Your Notes, and Number Your Players
Continuing the thread of the huge ROI of precise notation, let’s talk about one of the simplest but most crucial practices: marking every entrance with the correct player specificity.
I know—it’s not as thrilling as negative harmony, mediant relationships, or polyrhythmic textures. (I’ve been down that rabbit hole too.) But if you don’t mark these things clearly, others will make decisions for you. And that’s rarely ideal. Plus, it forces you to think about the actual musicians in the orchestra—not just blobs of sound on a score.
This is especially important when dealing with condensed staves (Dorico’s term for when two musicians share a stave in the score). Typically, this affects woodwinds and brass in a symphonic setting.
Even though Dorico promises automation for these markings, you still need to know what to look for and when to override it manually.
Numbering the Staves
Whenever two or more instruments share a stave, they need to be labeled with player numbers. You can almost freely choose how you group the four horns from page to page, so it’s best practice to explicitly indicate the split for the conductor. It’s not enough to just write “4 Horns”—the conductor needs to know how they’re divided, and leaving this to the copyist is a recipe for inconsistency.
For example:
In this case, Horn 1 and Horn 3 both take the top E. The Horns can share the stem since they’re playing homorhythmically. Now, consider this: the passage is actually a continuation of the previous piece.
If you were extracting parts, how would you split them?
• In bar 2, it’s obvious: Horn 1 plays C, Horn 2 plays A-flat.
• But in bar 1? Does Horn 1 play the A-flat and then switch to C in the next bar?
If so, we’d need to explicitly mark “a2” on the A-flat—or better yet, give it its own voice:
Now it’s crystal clear.
If Horn 1 isn’t supposed to play in bar 1, we should either write “2.” on the A-flat or (better yet) give the first voice a whole rest.
Here’s the whole passage in its properly notated form:
Because of the different entrances and accents, I had to write each shared staff in two voices and two dynamic layers. The only exception? Trumpet 1—it’s the only instrument not sharing a stave.
Sure, I could spread each instrument onto its own staff, but that would take up unnecessary space.
When to Use Two Voices
You’ll notice that when every bar is written in two voices, you don’t need additional text instructions.
However, if you encounter this situation:
It’s often clearer to write it in two voices:
Both examples label the notes correctly, but the second one is far easier to read.
Whenever two players share a stave, but fewer notes are present than players, you need to specify who plays what. That means marking 1.., 2.., 3.., both, all, or whatever combination applies.
For example:
Here, the clarinets are the only instruments sharing a staff, so on their entrance, I marked that it’s only the first clarinet playing.
Best Practices for Clarity
Most of the composers I work with label every time the situation changes and, just like with dynamics, restate it after one full bar of rests.
One composer I worked with insisted on repeating any such text in parentheses on page turns. It takes up space, but it makes perfect sense—especially for conductors flipping through pages mid-performance. In recording sessions, you never know how the conductor will set up the pages, but if you’re printing and binding the score, you could repeat this information on every left-hand page.
Final Notes on Precision
While player numbering and entrance markings might not be the flashiest part of orchestration, they’re essential for clarity, efficiency, and avoiding unnecessary confusion in rehearsals and recording sessions. Conductors, players, and copyists all rely on clear, consistent indications—especially in condensed staves—so it’s worth the extra effort to get them right.
But beyond just making the score readable, this practice forces you to think like an orchestrator. By carefully deciding who plays what and when, you develop a sharper awareness of orchestral balance, phrasing, and practical constraints. Instead of leaving things vague and hoping for the best, you become more deliberate in your choices—controlling the texture, weight, and color of your orchestration with precision.
Key Takeaways:
• Always number instruments sharing a stave and indicate how they’re split.
• Use multiple voices when needed to clarify individual entrances and lines.
• Mark who plays what whenever the situation changes, especially after rests.
• Consider extra cues on page turns to keep conductors oriented.
• Treat it as an orchestration exercise, not just a technical chore. The better you notate, the better you orchestrate.
It’s easy to assume that notation software will handle this automatically, but good orchestration is about making decisions—not outsourcing them to an algorithm. A well-marked score doesn’t just look clean; it ensures that your music is played exactly as you intended.