Cross-staff music

Here’s how to notate cross-staff music using the Soundslice editor.

In the above music, the third and fourth notes cross from the bottom staff to the top staff, while remaining beamed with the first two notes.

This situation happens frequently in piano music. You might move certain notes to another staff to make the music easier to read or to clarify which hand should be playing.

Moving notes across staves

In our editor, it’s easy to move a note to another staff:

1. Make sure the instrument is a grand staff instrument (see here). You should see a brace connecting the two staves. This functionality is only available for grand staff instruments.
2. Select the note you want to move to the other staff. You can also select multiple notes.
3. In the editor’s top panel, open the “Format” section and click the “Move note to opposite staff” button . You can also search for the command.

The note will instantly move to the opposite staff:

It’s not necessary for a note to be beamed in order to use this feature. It also works for quarter notes and half notes:

Beaming for cross-staff music

Cross-staff beams work the same as “normal” beams. See the separate help page on beams for information on how to flip the beam direction and more.

Why would I use this feature instead of just entering the note directly in the other staff?

Sure, you can do that too. The main advantage of using our “Move note to opposite staff” command is that beaming is preserved. And for half notes and quarter notes, the stem is connected across staves.

What happens if I hide one of the two staves while practicing?

Feel free to do so (using the Instruments panel in the player settings). We’ll automatically move any “opposite staff” notes to their primary staff. Later, if you unhide the staff, the music will go back to normal.

Sometimes it’s not 100% clear which staff I should enter a note in. Any guidance?

It generally works either way and is totally up to you. For example, consider the first bar of Satie’s “Gymnopédie No. 1”:

The three-note chord could be entered in two ways:

• All entered on the top staff, with the B marked as “opposite staff.”
• All entered on the bottom staff, with the D and F# marked as “opposite staff.”

Both ways will work equally well. It really depends on how you think of the music. Multiple voices may come into play.