Changing an existing time signature

How do I change an existing single 4/4 bar into a 5/4 bar? I added a 4/4 time signature after the bar to be changed, because otherwise all the music in the bars afterwards gets changed to 5/4 until the next explicit key change. I then change the bar to 5/4 and this is what it shows, but I discover that it’s still actually a 4/4 bar. Why? I want it exactly the other way around: displaying 4/4 (or actually no time signature at all) while being 5/4.

You can add an extra beat inside the bar. Shift-B, 1/4, Enter. It doesn’t change the time signature, just adds a quarter note to the bar.

Changing (“increasing”) a time signature as you did does not add rests if there is an explicit time signature that follows it. You can easily add them manually, as above.

OK, let’s say I want to change an empty 4/4 bar into 12/4. If I type Shift-B, 12/4, Enter, I just get three 4/4 bars.

Everything I do just rebars the following bars. How do I get Dorico to change the one bar to accept the number of notes I need and leave the rest alone?!

Before you change the time signature, enter the “old” time signature into the next bar.

To change from 4/4 to 12/4 at bar 39, first enter 4/4 explicitly at bar 40, then change bar 39 to 12/4.

I vaguely remember that something about this behavior when inserting a time signature has changed slightly in a recent update, so there may now be a more elegant way to do it. My compatriot Leo may be able to weigh in… :laughing:

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That’s what I finally ended up doing. I usually still get extra bars which I then have to consolidate. If there isn’t a more elegant way of doing this, it’s really convoluted and time-consuming! Adding time signatures, consolidating the extra bars and hiding the time signatures takes a long time: Dorico grinds away for quite awhile after each of these many actions. Let’s hope…

You shouldn’t get extra bars if you do it that way and add the explicit time sig first…

What I do is:
Add the 4/4 time signature after the bar I want to change
Engage “insert mode” by pressing “i”
Add the 5/4 time signature to the bar I want to change. You should now see an extra rest in it
Hide the time sigs, if I want to

I think that’s the quickest way? No need to consolidate bars or anything.

I added the explicit time signature (takes 12 seconds). The previous bar which I want to change to 15/8 already has a whole note piano chord in it. I have to click the right barline and then enter 7/8, otherwise the chord gets distributed between two bars. Adding it at the end (20 seconds) inserts a 7/8 bar between the previous bar and the one to which I added a 4/4 time signature. I can consolidate these two bars (12 seconds), clean up, and add the lyrics, all of which takes quite some time. I have a whole page of these. It would have MUCH been quicker to do it in Finale, import it via XML and paste it in. Is this really the way? BTW, typing the lyrics in is really a chore. The lag with each syllable is considerable, and I can’t tell if Dorico has really registered what I’ve typed due to this lag. Often I’ll have typed a syllable and I have to wait for 15-20 seconds for it to be placed under the note! What’s going on?

I’ll experiment with insert mode. Thanks!

I just discovered that the explicit (4/4) time signatures get ignored if they’re invisible, and the notes in those bars get re-distributed in the new TS I inserted. Hiding the time signatures has to happen as the last step.

sounds vaguely familiar to me too :

wow…the trick with the insert mode is great ! it works perfectly… thanx vilnai…:slight_smile: