After learning a lot more about transposing instruments and clefs that represent an octave lower, I cannot remember how to reverse something I did.
Somehow, i selected a group of notes for a horn that I set a transcription to -1 octaves in the properties panel for clefs, but I cannot for the life of me get back to it to remove it.
When I switch between concert pitch and transposition, only those notes shift.
If the above actually makes sense, can someone explain how to do it? Thanks!
You would have set the octave shift property on a “manual” clef that you added to the staff.
Note that default clefs cannot be selected: so any clef that is highlighted in a selected has been manually added.
If you want to remove all manual clefs from a staff:
Also, check the initial clef.
Thank you very much for your quick reply!
I think that I was not clear. There is only one clef that is visible at the beginning of the horn part. The first phrase in the line looks the same on concert pitch and transposed. The next phrase shifts up and down an octave.
When I get to step 4 of your list, nothing is highlighted to be deleted.
Can you upload a cut-down version of your project that demonstrates the issue?
Here is a small part of the file that demonstrates the behavior on the first horn.
Thorny Staples Example .dorico (1.1 MB)
Another issue with the project is that none of the other transposing instruments change when I move from concert pitch to transposing pitch. Maybe it is my ignorance at work here, but I would expect all the clarinets to shift down a step and the horns to shift down 4 steps.
As ai said I am a newbie at both Dorico and concerns about transposing instruments.
I see several things going on here. First off, it looks like you’ve manually added clefs to all of your instruments. If you use marquee selection to select the entire first bar, you’ll see that all the clefs get selected, and as @benwiggy noted, that means that they’re manual rather than default clefs. In Dorico, default clefs – that is, the usual clef that each instrument uses – are supplied as part of the instrument definition, so you only need to add a manual clef if you want something different. (A cello going up into a high register and needing a tenor or treble clef, for example.)
If I select the clef at the start of the horn staff and delete it, then there’s no difference when I switch back and forth between concert pitch and transposed.
As for your second comment about none of the transposing instruments changing when you switch, that’s because you’ve set up your score with clarinets, trumpets, and horns all in C – that is, you’ve picked versions of the instruments that don’t transpose (written pitches sound the same as concert pitch). If you want transposing instruments (e.g., Bb clarinet, Bb trumpet, F horn), then you need to pick those versions in Setup mode.
Here’s a version of your score in which I have deleted all the manual clefs you had at the beginning and then changed the clarinets, trumpets, and horns to their usual transposing variants. Does this look more the way you were expecting?
Thorny Staples v2.dorico (1.1 MB)
And here’s the section from the manual on changing instruments, which you can do even after you’ve entered music for the instrument:
Thank you! I did not set this up, I imported it in progress from finale. I went in last night and changed all those instruments, I thought and set all the clarinets so that C4=Bb3, again, I thought.
What a mess! That is what I get for jumping right into Dorico with an imported partial project.
How do you delete all the manual clefs? When I tried to do that for just the horns, as suggested the first response, none of the clef highlighted to delete.
There are often some odd things that happen during XML import – especially if the original Finale file may have been set up in a slightly nonstandard way.
I didn’t look to see if you had made changes to the instrument definitions themselves, but again, if you select the default Clarinet in Bb instrument, everything is taken care of for you.
I think @benwiggy assumed that you had inserted a manual clef somewhere after the beginning of the piece, and his instructions would have deleted those. He did also say to check the initial clef, though. I deleted them by doing a careful marquee selection that grabbed all the clefs, but not the key signatures or time signatures. You could also delete them by selecting and deleting one at a time, or clicking one and then Ctrl+clicking the others.
Thanks you very much for being so patient! I think I understand. I will try to fix it tomorrow.
I need to do that for each of the three flows in this project, correct?
Also, I did go into setup and change the clarinets and trumpets to Bb last night, I thought. How many steps does that take? I may not have completed the process.
Yes, you should check each of the flows for manual clefs.
Take a look at the link I posted for instructions on changing the instruments in Setup mode. This only needs to be done once per instrument for the whole project.
Thanks again! I realized after I wrote last time, that I did change the clefs that need to show the 8 below the treble clef. If I delete all the clefs and re-add all the instruments, will the horns show the 8 below?
I am editing this replay to save time. I did what you said and it is fixed. Thank you so much! I don’t know exactly what I did with those instruments.
No — but horns don’t use that clef.
