In a cutaway score, inactive measures are completely hidden, as in the example above. This is common in contemporary works and analysis, as well as in theater scores where the narrator needs to speak while the music pauses.

Cutaway scores are easy to create in Finale using Staff Styles. I should write a series of blog posts about all the cool things that can be done with Staff Styles, but let this be an introduction to their magic.

To create the example above, I selected the empty measures in the example below (although it would work the same even if there were notes present):

Next I right-clicked (control-click on Mac) on the selected area and chose Staff Style > Apply Staff Styles 

Here I selected “Force Hide Staff (Cutaway) (H)” and clicked OK to produce the result seen at the top of this blog.

Pretty simple, huh? Check out some of the other Staff Styles available (or make your own). Let me know how it’s going by clicking on “Comments” below!

PS: Bonus points scored for the first person who can tell me what the “H” represents!