Having printed out parts and score for a piano concerto and distributed them, I now find - to my horror - that some band parts are counting the pick-up bar as bar 0 and others, as bar 1.
As I don’t know how to change bar numbers and can’t even find anything in the manual about numbering of pick-up bars, I cannot fathom how on earth I’ve managed to do it in the first place (presuming I have); nor how it could even be possible to have such a mismatch.
Has anyone else found anything really odd like this happening?
What I do notice is that (for example) the Tuba part is showing bar numbers on its grey bar above the stave (in Write Mode), and has the pick-up bar as 0; the Flute part does not show bar numbers, and counts the pick-up bar as bar 1.
I have no idea of the significance of this. Is there something affecting the ability of the bar numbers to be shown on the grey bars?
Generally speaking, if you add a pickup bar at the start of a Flow, the pickup is classed as bar 0.
The two ways I can think of generating mismatched bar numbers are as follows:
- Local time signatures. These only apply to one stave, though it’s possible to apply the same local time signatures to multiple staves or players.
- MusicXML import where the original file contained mismatches.
Are either of these likely?
Ah, thanks - yes - I’ve never used XML files and I have got various time signatures, so it’ll be that. But why? What makes it do that?
It never occurred to me that the neat opportunity have multiple time sigs would cause such problems, or I’d have checked. I wonder what else Dorico does that I’m not expecting… 
If the pickup bar is at the start of the flow, then all you need to do is select each time signature in turn and see if the other time signatures highlight (orange). Any time signature that highlights on its own is local, and can be deleted - it will automatically be replaced by the global time signature.
If you need multiple time signatures simultaneously, it’s probably safest to use rehearsal marks and leave bar numbers out altogether.
I can see your point but it’s not always so easily done - I’m editing a concerto, retaining the composer’s original rehearsal marks, but alas, they’re a bit sporadic, and bar numbers really are useful. And besides, I really should be able to have both, and without such hassle. Otherwise, I’m having to dance to Dorico’s tune, not the other way round.
Anyway, thanks. I’ll turn the printer on…
How can bar numbers be helpful if some people are in 2/4 and other people are in 3/4? For some people, the eighth beat will be the first beat of the fourth bar. For other people, the eighth beat will be the middle beat of the third bar.
Even if you fudge global bar numbers, you can’t say “let’s go from bar 64” if the last bar number that shows in the part happens to be bar 60 and players are then counting forward four bars from there, because different players in different time signatures will end up starting from different places.
How about using much more regular rehearsal marks?
By multiple time sigs, I mean someone being in 2/4 while someone else is in 6/8. Still the same number of bars.
There is a neat way to have multiple time sigs of that nature, which was given here some time ago; but perhaps there’s a better way which doesn’t cause other problems. It would be good if so, but I’ve not found it yet.
Ah! Well in that case, try just adding a bar number change to bar 1 (to make it show as bar 1.)
edit: I guess you might need to apply a bar number change to each of the local time signatures to make the bar numbers show correctly in the parts. I’m not entirely sure, though.
Yes, that’s what I’m doing. A real bind, having to re-print; I’ve got better things to do. It’s fortunate I did spot it before we record; what’s worrying is that I’m left wondering if there’s anything else I’m going to find, but at recording, not before.