Can't Create Third Voice

[Engelbach]

When I press Shift-V it cycles between voices 1 and 2 instead of creating a new voice 3.

[Alberto_Maria]

Welcome on board Jerry! Are you sure you have the correct keyboard active?
In any case you have the menu Write-->Create Voice
You cannot create a voice 3 if you don’t have a voice 2 inserted.

[Romanos]

Engelbach, you cannot create a third voice unless there is already a second (that is to say, you cannot have an “upstem 3” unless there is an “upstem 2”). It will only add sequential voices. Put something into voice 2, and then voice 3 will become available to you.

And FWIW, it doesn’t work like Finale: you have upstem 1 and downstem 1, up / down 2, etc. Not 1,2,3,4.

[benwiggy]

Dorico starts with “Up-stem Voice 1”, and using SHIFT V will create “Down-stem Voice 1”.
If you create another voice with SHIFT V, it will either be up-stem or down stem: if you want the other one, just press SHIFT V again.

However, remember to use only V to switch between existing voices (or to move music between existing voices).

Dorico will ‘clear out’ any un-used voices when you close and re-open the project.

[Alberto_Maria]

Sorry James…

[Romanos]

I consider it a thing of delight that we often outfox each other when it comes to quickly typing helpful responses. No apology needed

[Romanos]

you must use “shift” to add a voice. Pressing V will only toggle between existing voices. If there is only one voice, pressing V will do nothing, since there is no other voice to toggle.

[Alberto_Maria]

Sorry: two posts of mine deleted because wrong!
I couldn’t test before posting

[Engelbach]

Romanos, with notes on voices one and two, Shift-V was not creating a third voice.

But your advice above works. If I flip the downstem notes of voice two so both one and two are upstem, I can create a third downstem voice. Thank you.

Thanks all for your input.

[Romanos]

Take a look at the Gif I posted here some time ago. It will help clarify things.

Unasked for flipping of notes

This is subtle, but another aid that Dorico provides is built right into the caret. In the following gif I first press enter, and then tap V a few times to cycle between the upstem 1 and downstem 1 voices that are already present in this score. This means that when I activate note entry mode, I can choose which voice I want to add notes into. In this particular example, if I stayed with the upstem option, I’d overwrite the top line, and if I leave it on the downstem icon I’d over write the mi…

[Mark_Johnson]

@Engelbach

with notes on voices one and two, Shift-V was not creating a third voice.

This must be a misperception on your part. There is never a need to flip stems manually just to add an additional voice. What I imagine happened is that the new voice you created wasn’t the stem direction you were expecting, so you thought it wasn’t new.

Has no one mentioned voice colors yet? As always, that helps sort out voice confusion.

[Engelbach]

Thanks, Mark. You’re right.

What confused me is the numbering system. I saw the number 2 for the second upstem voice and didn’t realize that it was the third voice.

The colors are a big help.

[rodrigoruiz1988]

This might help understand better how voices work in Dorico:

Inputting notes into multiple voices