Can some staves repeat differently?

[Elwood]

I'm arranging a song for our church band and all four verses are the same, plus an intro and an ending, except that the bass line and an accompanying chorus are different. The chorus only runs in the second and third verse. The bass line is different in the first and second verses, then third and fourth verses are the same. It would be nice to hand out sheet music to the band members with everything in as few pages as possible. For example, give the singers their music and lyrics in one simple sheet with all four verses neatly "stacked." I'm afraid, however, the only way to make this work is to duplicate every measure of the first verse two more times and repeat only the third and fourth verse. Is it possible to repeat different staves in different ways? Having the song look right is important, but having it output to MIDI is important, too, as that's what the band members will practice to. I suspect it can't be done, and if I really want to keep the piano and lyrics together in a 4-verse repeat, I'll have to build the song in two separate files. I'm sorry, my lack of formal music training is showing.

[mvoogt]

I don't know if your problem really has to do with Finale. Sounds like it is an arrangement issue. I mean is the bass line really that important that each note needs to be notated? Or can you just use slash (time) marks? You could notate some key phrases that you want the bass player to do however in this kind of setting it might just be better to put slashes and chord symbols. You might be able to use a coda system however the first solution sounds like your best bet if it is just the bass player that has different music.

[Elwood]

Thanks, mvoogt, for confirming my suspicion that all staves repeat (or not) together. Keeping it all in one four-verse repeat sounds like the simplest solution, with notes added as needed. The song begins softly with just an acoustic guitar and builds, adding instruments, during the first two verses, so if any of the musicians (we're all amateurs) have trouble understanding it, it should be fairly easy to make an alternate version of the Finale file. Although Finale will include all instruments in all verses, I can edit the practice MIDI file in Pro Tools so each band member can hear when their instrument comes in.

As for that bass player, he's going to be trouble. I should know: the bass player is me.