Tutorials – Dorico

Tip: Add harmony to a melodic line using Chord mode and Lock to Duration

Double-click the start of an existing melodic line of music.
Engage Chord mode and Lock to Duration both found in the Notes toolbox.
Chord mode can be engaged using the key command Q, and Lock to Duration using L.
Enter your harmony using either the computer keyboard or a MIDI keyboard.
Use Space to advance the caret; the new notes are aligned to the existing rhythms.

Use the Scissors tool to cut tie chains into separate notes.
During note input, use the Scissors tool to split notes at any position. Move to a position on the rhythmic grid using the left and right arrow keys and when you activate the Scissors tool all notes, chords and explicit rests at that point will be divided in two.
You also use the Scissors tool by pressing U.

In Write mode, make a selection containing notes of the same pitch, and press the Tie button in the Notes toolbox of the left side of the window to tie those notes together.
You can use the tie button during note input to create durations of any length, by toggling it on before you enter the note.
Notes do not need to be adjacent to be tied.
You can tie notes to other notes of the same pitch even if they are in a different voice or staff.
When you tie notes together, they will be combined into one note with a duration totalling the individual note lengths. Depending on the prevailing Notation Options, this may cause the newly-tied note to be rewritten (for example, a dotted quarter note tied to an eight note may end up being written as a single half note). In order to have control over the divisions in the tie chain, enable Force Durations in the Notes toolbox, or press O. If you wish to revert the tie chain to using the Notation Options, simply uncheck the Force Duration button.

From the Window menu, choose New Window, or press the key command Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) + Shift + T.
You can view a different layout in each new window.
You can work in Page View and Galley View at the same time.
When using additional monitors it can be useful to have a Dorico window open for the current project on each screen.
Each window can be set to a different mode, for example you can work in Write mode and Play mode at the same time.

With Insert mode, you can input notes before existing notes without overriding them.
The key command for Insert mode is ‘I’. This will toggle Insert mode on and off.
Insert mode allows you to push existing notes ahead at the same time as inputting new notes at their previous positions.
Insert mode works when editing as well, so deleting notes will also pull the following notes back into the resulting space.
Changing the durations of notes when Insert mode is enabled pushes and pulls all subsequent notes in that voice forwards and backwards, so again they are not overridden.