I’m creating a rehearsal piano/vocal score from a full orchestration of a musical imported via mxl file from Finale. The dynamic markings coming from Finale are applying to both staffs in Dorico, no matter whether they are under the treble staff or bass staff.
Thanks so much for the Alt/Option + return advice in a thread from last year. It works. My only question is, how do I make it clear what staff the dynamic applies to, or if it applies to both staffs? I am definitely not a piano player and I want to make sure that I am making things clear for a rehearsal pianist. I have seen suggestions that treble only dynamics should be above the treble staff and bass only dynamics should be below the bass staff and dynamics for both should be between the staffs. But other posts say dynamics never go above the treble staff and that treble dynamics go below the treble staff and dynamics for both staffs are centered between them, which is a distinction with no meaning unless the staffs are well separated. In my case, I could simply put a note at the beginning of the rehearsal piano/vocal score that all piano dynamics apply only to the staff above the dynamic, as each stave typically contains music from separate instruments, which have different dynamics in the score.
Any suggestions? I would rather take care of this as I go along rather than going back to fix it later.
For grand staff instruments, such as piano or harp, dynamics are usually placed between the two staves, but can be placed both above and below when each staff requires separate dynamics.
I did some looking in “Help” and found out I need to be in Engrave mode to change the position of dynamics to above staff. I was unable to select all of the dynamics in Engrave mode so I went to Write mode, selected all of the music on the treble staff then filtered on dynamics. When I switched back to Engrave mode the dynamics for the treble staff were still selected and I was able to toggle on Placement and select Above. That moved them above the staff. Is there a way to select all of the dynamics on a staff in Engrave mode, or was my move to Write mode to do it the only way?
Oh, I just switched back to Write mode and noticed that the Placement toggle for dynamics is there as well when dynamics are selected, so I didn’t need to go to Engrave mode.
Engrave Mode is just for the display.
In Write Mode you have the function.
For Grand Staff instrument: you have to be in Write Mode: select a note of your top staff and add a Dynamic: The Dynamic applies to top and bottom staff.
If you then go to Engrave Mode, the functionality does not change, no matter where you place the Dynamic. It will always apply to both staves.
You could even drag the Dynamic to another bar or to the edge of your page; the functionality does not change. It is always Write Mode, which determines what is actually happening with your music.