I am so giddy with delight at finally having capo chord support in Dorico! It’s reliable and very well implemented… but I do think the actual setup of capos is a little burdensome. Might I suggest:
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Add capo setup to the Shift-Q popup. Typing “capo 3,” for example, could add a standard m3 transposition capo line to all chords in a flow; perhaps “(capo 3)” could create a capo/alternate chord in that specific location only.
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Add capo controls to the Lower Zone (getting used to that nomenclature!). Set the fret or interval, establish a range for capos (single location, bars, flow, all).
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For those who think in capos, add parentheses as a function in the popover, so that (D) would add an F chord. OR: use brackets instead, and allow (D) to create a parenthesized main chord!
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Auto-create capo instructions, with Engraving Options for “Capo at fret x,” “Capo x,” italicizing, and so on.
All that said, I think your implementation is already superior to anyone else out there and I genuinely appreciate the add!
I think for now Dorico thinks Capos as being completely separate instruments. Many of your suggestions imply a workflow, where a capo can be freely added during a piece or in between flows (as it is often the case in musical theater, for example). I would really love dorico’s Capo function be expanded in this direction.
So if we want a capo change mid-flow, for now the approach should be to add another instrument with that capo to the same player, write the music on the separate staves, and adjust the instrument change labels to taste. Yes?
Yes, that’s right - the best way to implement a mid-piece capo change would be to create two instruments for the same player and do it as an instrument change.
Thanks for the suggestions. I agree that it would be good to be able to input chord symbols in their transposed form, but it’s not a trivial piece of work.
This can get a little unhandy in musical theatre, where there are several guitars for one player (electric, nylon, steel etc.), each with their own capo-capabilities (what a beautiful Word combination!).
It just doesn’t „feel“ as natural as the whole player conception Dorico, but for now I appreciate the possibility the update creates, as at least my current arrangement of Bring it On should be totally doable, if we decide to switch to D4.
I’m having trouble getting this to work. I’m working on lead sheets for a liturgical setting where two of the songs are capo3, one is capo1, and the rest are no capo. I’ve got my player set up as solo voice with 3 guitars, each defined with the appropriate capo setting (done through the Edit String And Tuning dialogue). However, I don’t see a way to specify which guitar is active. If I use the Change Instrument dialog, it appears to change the instrument for the entire piece, not just the song I want. The help instructions aren’t very clear on this. Can you help me see what I’m doing wrong?
The way to do this is to have two Players - one for the Voice and one for the three guitars - and then to ensure Instrument Changes are turned on in Layout Options (which they are by default). Then Dorico will be able to automatically handle any changes from one guitar to another - whichever guitar you write the notes on is the one that will appear in Page View. (Galley View will always show you all of the instruments that are used in the project.)
Do I understand correctly that the capo - as defined in the “edit strings and tuning” section of the instrument parameters does not affect the chord symbols being displayed in the “Capo chord symbol definition” section of the player parameters?
Since the latter is governed by the player and the former by the instrument, I take it that it’s currently still impossible to change a capo (using an instrument change as you articulated above) and have the chord symbols reflect that change?
I suppose then the only way to synchronize capo changes and chord voicings, or symbols, would be to create a player for each capo position and change the “Capo chord symbol definition” section of each player accordingly?
Has this feature changed since 2022?
What you say is basically correct, though there is one other possibility. If you don’t need to display both capo chord symbols and “main” (untransposed) chord symbols at the same time, you could try using this option:
This option is really intended for use with detuned guitars rather than capos e.g. where the whole guitar is tuned down by a tone or a semitone so that the guitar effectively becomes a transposing instrument. When that option is chosen, the transposition set up for the instrument will affect the chord symbols (the “main” chord symbols, that is) as well as the notation, so it might be possible to use it for your purposes.
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Ok, thanks for that. I’ll looking deeper into that feature.
Wonderful!
I encountered an issue with enharmonic spelling, but will relay how i addressed it, in this mock-up, in case anyone else runs into this problem.
Using the fretted instrument transposition for notation and main chord symbols in layout options, I was able to smoothly transition from the key of G on my guitar instrument to the key of Ab on my capoed guitar instrument within the same player. But the chords were not spelled the way I’d hoped.
So I went into the edit strings and tunings dialog of my capoed guitar instrument and changed the enharmonic spelling there, from C#3 to Db3
And this fixed the spelling:
Also, the score needs to be viewed as Transposed, because the guitar is now being interpreted as a transposing instrument, as you mentioned above, Richard.
Thanks for that.
I’m ok with thinking of the guitar as a transposing instrument (beyond the octave), although I’m not sure it’s a commonly held view. This will work for me for now.
