TUTORIALS
#TipsTuesday
RESOURCES
A plethora of help, shortcuts, templates and more are also available in our Resources section.
ARTICLES
Tip: Add and edit ossias
- Create an ossia by making a selection, and choosing Edit > Staff > Create Ossia Above/Below, or right-click to show the context menu.
- Input the music for the ossia in the usual way.
- Drag the signposts to change the start and endpoints of the ossia.
- Choose whether to show barlines, as well as many other options, in Engraving Options.
- There are also more options for in Layout Options, including specifying in which layouts they are shown.
Tip: Add intervals above or below selected notes
- With one or more notes selected, type Shift+I to open the Notes popover.
- Type a number and press Enter to add that interval above the selected notes.
- Separate numbers with commas to build chords.
- Specify the interval quality.
- Add intervals below with negative numbers.
- Build complex chords quickly and easily.
- Even add notes to the top or bottom of existing chords.
- Type t before the number to transpose the selected notes by that interval.
Tip: Number together instruments of different transpositions
- By default Dorico will number instruments of different transposition separately.
- There is an Engraving Option — on the Staff Labels page — to number them together instead.
- This also works in conjunction the option to group staff labels between staves.
Tip: Set key commands to increase/decrease dynamic intensity
- It is possible to modify selected immediate dynamics by choosing different items in the Dynamics panel.
- However, it can be convenient — especially for keyboard-centric users — to be able to do this using the keyboard.
- Open Preferences, and choose the Key Commands page.
- Search dynamic, and expand Note Editing.
- Choose a key command for Increase Dynamic Intensity and another for Decrease Dynamic Intensity.
- Now you can quickly modify dynamics in the score.
- It even works on multiple selections.
- We have not set a default shortcut as this command is not necessarily useful for every user, and would occupy space on the keyboard that could not then be reserved for other features.
Tip: Extend note durations to end of selection
- Don’t waste time calculating how long notes need to be.
- Make a selection of a note or notes you want to extend, and extend that selection to the rhythmic position at which you want the notes to end.
- Select Write > Edit Duration > Extend to End of Selection.
- This command makes it easy to set a selection of notes to be the same duration.
Tip: Use the numeric keypad to control playback
- If you use a full-size computer keyboard, you can use the numeric keypad to control playback.
- The Enter key starts and stop playback (0 — zero — also stops playback).
- The + and – keys fast-forward and rewind.
- The . (dot) key returns the playhead to the beginning of the flow.
- These key commands match those of Steinberg’s DAW Cubase.
Tip: Fix number of bars shown in each system
- Sometimes it can help the music to look clearer and be easier to read if the number of bars on each system stays constant.
- Dorico makes this easy to achieve by way of a Layout Option that lets you fix a number of bars per system.
- Open Layout Options from anywhere in the program by pressing Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+L, and selecting Staves and Systems, Casting Off.
- Enable the option for Fixed number of bars per system and set how many bars you would like to see.
- There are other options including one to set how many systems should be shown on each page, which can help make spreads and booklets look more balanced.
Tutorial: Creating a scales worksheet in Dorico
Dorico is uniquely powerful in terms of its handling of complex documents with multiple pieces of music contained within them, and in its ability to create consistent page layouts quickly and easily. But these tools may not present themselves hugely obviously to you at first, especially if you’ve been used to working in other music notation software that provides fewer features targeted at these kinds of use cases: you may well have become very proficient at bending other software to your will, and so when you come to try to do a similar job in Dorico, you might reasonably expect to find similar sorts of ersatz solutions, and consequently end up frustrated.
In this tutorial, we’ll introduce some of these powerful features and walk through the creation of a simple worksheet containing some major and minor scales. By the end of the tutorial, you will know something about important Dorico concepts like flows, vertical spacing, transposition, and more besides. So let’s get started.
Tip: Shorten note durations to remove overlaps in MIDI imports
- Many sound libraries employ a legato feature which is triggered by releasing a note after the next one has started.
- When you import MIDI into Dorico that has used this legato feature, you may find that some of the the notes are overlapping.
- Fix this by choosing Write, Edit Duration, Shorten to Next Note.
- All overlaps are removed instantly.