I apologize for the length of the code below, but I cannot explain this issue any other way. I have a percussion part where the player switches from playing a snare drum to playing a glockenspiel. I want the RhythmicStaff for the snare part, then change to the Staff for the glockenspiel part. I am using the code below to make this happen. I know it is over kill with the #'color = #white, but I am just a composer. The issue is - it looks like lilypond is spreading the snare part like it really has an alto staff. Is there any other way to switch a staff from RhythmicStaff to Staff and keep that beautiful lilypond layout?