You can do it with a custom (= user created) staff style.

A staff style can be applied to a selected region (unlike the Staff Attributes = for the entire staff).

Apply the staff style to the “few selected bars”.

Thank you, Peter,

That was too easy (ha, ha)

Worked perfectly!!
:-)
Vanessa

BTW--here's what I ended up with on the first page of the score:

Thank you, again,
:-)
Vanessa

Question, Vanessa:

Are these two measures beat by the conductor as part of the music? If so, how will the percussionists know how many measures they have "missed"?

Great question!

The measures are still there, just hidden. Also, I manually placed full measure rests and hide them.
Perhaps it might be a good idea to show the bar lines for these measures, but the measure numbers do appear in the part.
After looking at the result in the part, I can see where I have to rework font attributes and line breaks, but otherwise this appears to be a good solution. (Screen shot follows)

Here's another, totally dfferent approach. You could create an expression with your text, with an opaque frame, superimposing it over your staff lines, without hiding them. That way you retain (in may opinion anyway) a more consistent look of a score, where you still have your barlines and measure numbers. You'd probably have to experiment a little with font size of the text and the size of the frame.

Hi Michael,

That is exactly what I have been trying to accomplish, but never did see the option, nor details in the user manual.

I had also considered creating a graphic, but that did not seem (to me) as practical.

When I read your comment I probed the "Expression" options and found the opaque frame option.

Thank you--this might be more efficient.

:-)
Vanessa

Nessa,

I would totally advise against hiding the measures. If I were a percussionist or any other musician I would be very confused.

It would at least take up valuable rehearsal time, explaining, which always seems to be in short supply. It is always best to make it as clear as possible to the players.

Your Percussion 1, 2 is a very busy person. I would be freaking out!  Adding a Percussion 3  IMHO, would be a lot better idea. You could put your instrument and instructions in a percussion legend. 

A Percussion legend lists the percussion instruments in use when using the five-line percussion staff. Percussion legends include all instruments that are represented on the staff. They not only show sounding instruments in a set range but remind players which instruments to play at certain points.

EB

The Percussion Legend can be placed almost anywhere then the certain points in the music can be noted above the staff at that place, I.E., snare drum with sticks or SD w/sticks, etc.

There is also the special drum symbols you can use to indicate what the percussionists is supposed to do.

Hi Ernie,

Thank you for the follow-up. Good to know!!

BTW--Merry Christmas to you.

:-)
Nessa

And to you Nessa a very merry and happy holiday season.