Alternate Fingerings

Dorico
1

Hi -

Is there a way to show alternate sets of fingerings with a line in between the two options? Like below, but a solid line?

1 2 3

2 3 4

Thanks,

2

It would be relatively easy to add this using the new line tool options, methinks.

3

interesting. I am looking at that now. Thanks.

4

how do I make the fingerings line up though? So they show in a flat line rather than following the notes?

Also, Can I make 2 lines of fingerings with no line, such as

1 2 3
2 3 4

Then I could just put a flat line in between

5

I guess I can just use the text tool and the line tool. Would be nice to do this in fingerings though if anyone knows how.

Thanks.

6

Iā€™m glad you brought this up, Dave111. I have been requesting this functionality for several years. It is the biggest Dorico show-stopper for me.

And one might need to line up three or more sets of fingering similarly. Or one might need to position several alternative fingerings above, below or beside a single note. The problem is that the Dorico fingering tool cannot assign several individually moveable fingerings to a single note. Of course, the text tool could be used, but this is cumbersome. But I say this as a non-user; so perhaps someone will make my day and say it ainā€™t so.

A separating line is apparently now easy to accomplish with the line tool, so that is not an issue.

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7

Yeah the line is easy. I figured that out. You can make horizontal lines of text as well, but you need to manually line up every fingering number with each note I guess. Also, not sure how to angle a line of text to automatically match the angle of a solid line or if this must be done manually as well.

8

You can create an alternative fingering and have it appear below the standard fingering, but only one alternative per note at present. John Ruggero wants to be able to show two or more alternatives for a single note, and at present that is not possible.

You create an alternative fingering by entering it in the popover in parentheses, e.g. 4(2) for a standard 4 and an alternative 2. On the Fingering page of Engraving Options, you can then set ā€˜Enclosure for alternative fingeringsā€™ to ā€˜Noneā€™ and ā€˜Placement for alternative fingeringsā€™ to ā€˜Belowā€™. You may also want to increase ā€˜Vertical gap between fingeringsā€™ to something larger than the 1/4 space default to make room for the line you want to add.

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9

Thanks Daniel. Can you set the fingerings to appear horizontal (parallel to the bottom of the page or to a horizontal line?) rather than a set distance below the notehead?

Would be nice to have the ability to have more than two sets of fingerings at some point, but seems like it can be done manually if needed.

10

If you set ā€˜Minimum distance between outermost staff line and fingeringā€™ to something sufficiently high (itā€™s 1 space by default) then youā€™ll end up with the fingerings essentially lined up further outside the staff.

11

thanks!

12

This is so nice to have. I wish the alternate fingering could be set to non-italic,.

13

Hi Daniel,

Would be possible to have in the future the decoration circle and underline in the popover for accordion notation.

14

Why Dorico team decided alternative fingering MUST be placed below? (In case it is not on a right side). .If you read notes on the upper piano stave, you would like probably to read a main fingering first, which is closer to the note, and alternative fingering, which is more far away. And the opposite - for a left hand. I would appreciate an intelligent ā€œmirroredā€ setting - main (primary) fingering next to the notehead, alternative - farther from the note instead of having a fixed one.

15

When entering the fingerings in the fingering popover, if you type a letter L or R before the fingering number it will ā€œstackā€ the fingerings differently (L for left hand, R for right hand). If you want the fingering on the other side of the staff, select it and press F to flip its position.

16

Dear Steven, thank you for your answer. Unfortunately it doesnā€™t solve this problem. If I would like to write for example on an upper piano stave 4 as main fingering and (5) as alternate one and place them both over the note, no mater what do I enter 4(5), L4(5), R4(5) etcā€¦ - the closest fingering to the note will be (5)! But I would like to get an opposite result: I would like to enter as a closest finger to the note - 4! And over this 4 to enter (5). How do I get it? Dorico can put alternate fingering just right or below, but it is not able to put it over a main fingering. I understand a problem, if I would set it to ā€œoverā€, which at the moment do not exist, there will be problem with a left hand part, where I would like to get an opposite result. Thats why I mentioned - it would be great, If Dorico would have a setting, where it would follow a musical context. If fingering will be written over the note, main fingering would stay closer to the note, and alternate fingering will be placed over the main fingering. If I would press F, then Dorico would flip an order of fingering as wellā€¦

17

Dorico could at least allow a user to enter 4(5) or (5)4 with an opposite order as a result. That would solve this problem immediately. Instead of that entering (5)4 results just 54ā€¦The same output as if you would enter 5/4

18

Is this what you are trying to achieve?

Fingering (5) over 4

The following procedure is a workaround and would become very tiresome if you needed to do it for many occurrences.
You might like to try setting it up for one occurrence, copy and paste it to another location and then change the notes and edit the fingerings in the new location. That is the basic concept of how Lock Duration works.

What I did is:

  1. In Write mode, enter two (different) notes, each in a different voice. I entered the F on the top line in up-stem voice 1 and a C below it in down-stem voice 1.

  2. Enter the fingering for the upper note as an editorial fingering [5].
    To change the square brackets to parentheses, use Engraving Options > Fingering > Alternative, Editorial, and Cautionary > Enclosure for editorial fingerings > Parentheses.

  3. Enter the fingering for the lower note as a normal fingering.

  4. Flip the stem direction of the upper note.

  5. In Engrave mode, change the Voice column index of the lower note to 0 and hide its stem.
    Change to Write mode and move it upwards.

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19

I am very impressed. Iā€™ve tried your tutorial and it works perfectly! I would wisch Dorico team would read it - how creative their customers arešŸ˜Š Anyway writing a polyphonic music would makes this workaround even much more complex. I would wish they could implement one day a more convenient way to set it. Dorico team pretends to program their software in a very intelligent way. But this way some times have an obvious disadvantages. If writing 4(5) or (5)4 in a popover would make a difference in their order, there will be no need to fake it in a such complex and time consuming way. Anyway thank you very much for taking time to explainšŸ˜Š

20

Iā€™ve been using also this workaround. Believe me the Dorico team reads all, they have however many requests and implement them according to the roadmap.
A good idea could be to allow round brackets in fingerings but spanning the range of fingerings. So if there is a 2ā€¢3 this would become (F2ā€¢3) either vertical or horizontal depending on the preferences. These fingering are useful for something like F23(3) defining a horn trill that will be performed by alternating the 23 and 3 on the F side of the horn. Since the square brackets are activating the editorial fingerings, the round brackets could activate the bracketed fingerings (non editorial)

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