Hi Andrew, The difference between \RemoveEmptyStaves and \RemoveAllEmptyStaves is that \RemoveEmptyStaves will not remove empty staves in the first system, the reason for it being that in orchestral scores it is common to display all instruments involved in the first system - no matter if they play or not.
Your problem is caused by the fact that, from LilyPond's point of view, staves containing "no music", i.e. rests or spacer rests only, are considered as "empty". Therefore, dynamics will also vanish using \RemoveEmtpyStaves. The difference between PianoStaff and GrandStaff, by the way, is that PianoStaff uses the "Keep_alive_together_engraver". This has the effect (in orchestral scores) that both piano staves are shown as soon as one of them contains music. Solution to your problem: Just use GrandStaff (without "Keep_alive_together") and apply \RemoveAllEmptyStaves to the Staff lines only but *not* for the dynomics line: ~~~ \version "2.18.2" \score { \new GrandStaff << << \new Staff { \repeat unfold 4 { b'1 } \break \repeat unfold 4 { b'1 } \break \repeat unfold 4 { b'1 } } \new Dynamics { s1*2 s1*3\p\< s1*2\f s1*2\> s1\pp } >> \new Staff { R1*10 b1 b1 } >> \layout { \context { \Staff \RemoveEmptyStaves \override VerticalAxisGroup.remove-first = ##t } } } That way, the \new Dynamics line will not be removed and GrandStaff instead of PianoStaff saves you from the Keep_alive_together engraver. I didn't use \RemoveAllEmptyStaves here because it didn't exist back in 2.18.2 All the best, Torsten -- Sent from: http://lilypond.1069038.n5.nabble.com/User-f3.html _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user