Tutorials – Dorico

Tip: Switch between guitar notation and tablature

Dorico can show music for fretted instruments both as standard notation and as tablature.
Use Layout Options to choose whether to show music using notation, tab, or both.
When editing the music for a fretted instrument, both the notation and the tablature is updated.
You can even choose to display notation in one layout and tab in another.

Dorico can automatically calculate the pedal positions required for a harp to play the written music.
Any notes that out not playable using the current pedal positions are displayed in red. This is controlled by the View > Notes And Rest Colours > Notes Out Of Range menu item.
Select a note where you would like to change the harp pedaling, and choose Write > Calculate Harp Pedal. Dorico looks ahead in the music and creates a pedal diagram that will work for as long as possible. When you come to a note coloured red, this indicates that a change in harp pedaling is required, and you can create a new pedal diagram at this point using the same menu item.
When creating subsequent pedal diagrams, Dorico can create a partial diagram displaying only the pedals that must be changed to a new position. This can be controlled for all diagrams in the project using Engraving Options, or for individual diagrams using the properties panel.
You can choose to display full harp pedal changes using note names or a diagram. This can be set on a per-layout basis, using Layout Options, or for individual pedal changes using the properties panel.

Enable chord diagrams by switching to Setup mode, right-clicking a player and choosing Chord Diagrams, selecting the tuning that you want to show.
Chord diagrams show beneath chord symbols, and now when you add a new chord symbol, the appropriate diagram is displayed automatically.
Chord diagrams—in different tunings—can be shown on multiple staves; simply enable them for different players.
Press Alt+Q to cycle between the different fingering variants for a chord diagram.
Press Shift+Alt+Q to open a dialog that lets you choose from all possible alternatives.

With note input enabled, press Shift along with the up/down arrow keys to extend the caret onto adjacent staves.
Now, when you enter notes, they will be created on all staves the caret crosses.
Input other notations, such as slurs and articulations, dynamics etc. and they will be created for all staves.
When using a MIDI keyboard, as you play chords Dorico will automatically explode them across the staves.

Easily edit the paragraph style used for all staff labels, using Engrave > Paragraph Styles.
To edit the text and/or style for an individual staff label, switch to Setup mode and expand the relevant player card.
Hover over the instrument label and click the arrow to open the menu, then choose Edit Names…
You can spread staff labels over multiple lines, and edit using Dorico’s standard text editor, even changing the font and colour used by the label.
You can change the staff label for both the full name and short name for an instrument, which are set to be shown on the Staves and Systems page of Layout Options.