- In Dorico, there is no penalty for changing your mind. If you decide that the first bar of your piece should be a pick-up bar, it is very easy to edit.
- Remove the unwanted time at the beginning of the first bar. You can do this either by using the System Track (hold down Alt/Option in order to be able to select beats rather than bars), or by using the Shift+B Bars and Barlines popover. The syntax for removing time is a minus sign followed buy a number and the unit (q = quarter note, e = eighth note and so on).
- Edit the time signature/meter to include a pick-up bar by double-clicking it, and adding the number of beats the pick-up should have after a comma.
- It doesn’t matter which order you perform these two actions.
How do I insert a pick-up that is LESS than a beat, say, an eighth note?
@Ville: You can type fractions of beats into the Shift+M popover, e.g. to start a 4/4 time signature with a single eighth note (quaver), type 4/4,0.5 into the popover.
How do I sort the last bar out to match the pick up?
If you have the system track shown (Opt/Alt-T if you don’t already) then hold down the Opt/Alt key and hover over the system track in your final bar. Then drag to select the beat(s) that you want to delete and click on the trash can/bin.
None of this works!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@Anastasios: Sorry to hear you’re having problems with this. If you need further assistance, please come to the forum where we can help you most effectively.
I’ve got Dorico Pro 3. I am not able to insert a pickup bar at the very beginning of the piece. I am not able to get rid of the rests. What am I doing wrong please? Joseph
@Joseph: Please come along to the Dorico forum where we can help you.
Thanks for the short video, that worked just fine!
I think that this are still too many steps to do something that basic (and I say this as a great Dorico fan). Why not something simple? let’s say: Select the notes or the part of the measure, right click contextual menu, create pick-up measure). The fact I have to see this video every time I have to create a pickup measure tells you how unintuitive this method is. It’s just difficult to remember.
I have been trying to create a pickup bar on and off for several months for various pieces of music. I have even just exported an xml from staffpad, but Dorico has over written this and decided to do its own thing. At this point I am so frustrated that such a basic task is unobtainable. Shall I finally just give up! Despite selecting the notes in the system track and pressing delete, it just moves everything else around, or does something else unfathomable. Please help!!!
I would like to add my voice here as well. There has to be an easier way devs. This is such a common need and the fact that I have to look it up literally every time is frustrating. I think someone just mentioned the possibility of right clicking and adding a pick up bar. Love the software otherwise, thanks ya’ll.
This tip is so helpful! I never thought about using the first bar as a pick-up bar in Dorico. It really changes the way I approach my compositions. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve been wrestling with approximately this problem for a while. (Dorico Pro 5)
I imported some music XML with 1.5 beats in a pickup measure. Everything is fine as far as engraving the music, but if I “play” the tune, the first measure is played with the end of the measure full of rests. I could not get the above steps to work. They insisted on pushing the following notes forward by 2.5 beats by inserting rests at the beginning of the second measure.
I made it work by switching the first measure to 3/8 before changing it to 4/4,1.5. Evidently, changing to 3/8 made something that works like invisible rests in the first measure go away.
You could improv. You describe it, just aff the example and it will be much clearer. this topic by adding some written examples of the syntax you are describing – e.g., to add a one beat pick up measure to a piece in 4/4 time, the syntax to enter into the pop up after double clicking the time signature is “4/4, 1”