Tutorials – Dorico

Tip: Create time and key signatures on a single staff

In Dorico, it is easy to create time signatures and key signatures on just a single staff, by holding down the Alt key during input.
To input a time signature on a single staff, press Shift+M to open the popover and type the desired meter as usual.
If you hold down Alt while you press Enter, the time signature will be input only on the selected staff.
It works for creating time signatures using the mouse as well. Simply hold down Alt while you click.
The same method can be used to create a key signature on a single staff. Shift+K opens the key signature popover where you can type as usual. Holding down Alt when pressing Enter creates the key signature just for that selected staff.

Dynamics created together are grouped automatically.
Dynamics grouped or linked to a selected dynamic are coloured blue.
Grouped dynamics stay aligned in a row and can be edited as a group.
Group or ungroup dynamics manuals using the right-click context menu.
Dynamics copied to other staves at the same rhythmic position are linked automatically.
Linked dynamics stay aligned in a column and editing one updates them all.
Link or unlink dynamics using the context menu.

Make a selection in the music and press Shift+M to open the Time Signatures/Meters popover You can also double-click a time signature or select one and press Enter to edit it.
Type your desired beat grouping inside square brackets in the popover, and press Enter.
You can hide any meters that only set new beat groupings using the Hide time signature property in the properties panel.

Press Space to start and stop playback. Playback will start from the current position of the playhead.
Use Shift+Space to play from the previous start position.
Shift+Alt+Space will start playback from the beginning of the flow.
Make a selection then press P to start playback from that rhythmic position.
Make a selection on more than one staff and press P to play just those staves.
Press Alt+P to move the playhead to the current selection.
You may wish to turn on visibility of the playhead even when playback has stopped. You can do this on the Play page of Preferences.

It’s easy to change any instrument in your project, even when it has existing music already input.
In Setup mode, expand the player card for the instrument in question, and hover over the instrument label to show the menu arrow.
Click the arrow to open the instrument’s menu and choose Change Instrument.
The instrument picker opens, allowing you to browse for the instrument you require. Use the search box to filter the list.
With the correct instrument selected, press Change and the instrument is replaced. All music is retained, with any necessary transpositions handled automatically.