Bar numbering/lettering

A new 16 bar intro has been added to an existing song. Client wants this indicated with letters, thus:

A → P, 1 → 126 (existing)

How can I change between letters and numbers in the same piece?

I’m assuming you’re the same user who posted on the FB group too. AFAIK Leo’s answer there was correct and there’s no way to do this in Dorico. This is unfortunate as this is a very common convention in Broadway and musical theater writing. Often you won’t want to change bar numbers once rehearsals have begun as any cuts penciled in may reference bar numbers, especially if other edits require reprinting some parts but not others. A jazz composer I used to copy for would always use this convention you are asking for too - letters for intro, tune starts at bar 1.

Unless someone has a better solution, I guess I would just do it with system text. As a feature request, Dorico really should be able to handle this fairly common lettering/numbering system.

Yes, I’m the same guy :wink: I was wondering if someone here might know something that was not known on the FB group – but it seems there’s no current solution…

I guess I may be stuck with 0a, 0b, 0c etc. unless I decide to spend the time manually inserting system text (is that how you achieved the screenshot above? Or is that Finale?)

That’s definitely Finale. The jagged edges give it away… :wink:

Yep, that’s Finale circa 2006 or so. I haven’t done any copy work for that composer in quite a while.

I think the jaggies are the result of a poor quality graphic rather than Finale. I’ve never seen such output from Finale, nor would my clients accept it.

You’re right, I used the wrong word. It’s not the pixelation… it’s the angular lines and edges. Oh, and the shape of the slurs.

It’s a downscaled jpeg off of a screencap. Printed PDF will look fine.