Tutorials – Dorico

Tip: Create your own playing techniques

Use the Playing Techniques panel to open the editor and create your own playing technique.
Playing techniques can be either symbols or text. Use any Paragraph Style to set the format of text.
Set a continuation line, using a Dorico default or a line you have created yourself.
Choose a shorthand to use in the popover.
In the editor, Save as Default to save the playing technique to your User Library, and use it again in future projects.

Press the Add Ensemble button, or type Shift+E. Type the instruments you wish to create, typing a comma after each one, and press Add.
Dorico recognises orchestral shorthand to identify instruments, and you can specify how many of each instrument to add.
Press Tab to ‘bank’ the current instruments and clear search field, then continue adding more.
You can add entire orchestral sections at once, and even use numeric shorthand (e.g. 2222 for double woodwind).
Double-click instruments in the list to switch between creating them as single or section players.
Save your custom ensemble, giving it a name and category. It will now be searchable in the Build tab, and available in the Choose tab.

To select all notes in a specific voice across a selection, press J to open the Jump Bar and search for the filter commands.
There are filters available for each up- and down-stem voice.
Find a command in the Jump Bar even faster by typing just the first letter of each word.

Sometimes you may need to use different staff labels in your score than the default instrument names. For example, you may wish to label a multi-instrument percussion staff simply as ‘Percussion’. Or, in dramatical pieces, you may wish to identify character parts rather than using Soprano, Mezzo-soprano and so on.
In Setup mode, give your players the names you wish to identify them with in the music.
In Layout Options, choose Staves and Systems and check the relevant players to show their player names instead of instrument names.

It is possible to edit the playback of dynamic markings.
The Dynamic Editor is found in the lower zone, as part of the Key Editor.
The editor shows the profile of dynamic markings using green envelopes.
Drag the handles to change the intensity and duration of dynamic markings.
This affects the playback of dynamics.