So, basically what you’re saying is, our creativity should be tempered by commonality and originality is not worth accommodating?
Finale has the capability of creating whole libraries of uncommon chord suffixes and Dorico advertises itself as the future of music notation?
I hope this will be the case because I really want to like Dorico and want to move forward with it.
With as point-blank as @dspreadbury ‘s post is above, I’m assuming that what he listed as users’ desires is exactly what they’re working on. With the recent influx of Finale users - and this is only my guess/opinion - I’d be shocked if this wasn’t in the next major software update.
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I am not a big fan of “creativity” in notation. I am from the school that says the purpose of engraving is clarity, and to make the performer’s life easier.
Certainly there are others who see things differently.
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People use music notation software for different purposes. Composing, engraving, teaching, studying, etc. Hopefully, the powers that be work to accommodate all applications.
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I agree there are many possible constituencies, and this is a challenge to the product management folks. They do have a history of trying to balance things across constituencies.
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FredGUnn- I am tasked with reproducing hand manuscript jazz chords in Dorico. This includes polychords which are a major triad over a dominant 7th or 9th chord E|Bb7 Db/F7 Bb/E9 etc. I realize E/Bb7 could be Bb7(b9 #11), but that isn’t the intent of the composer. Is there a way to write E/Bb7 with the standard chord popover? This particular piece has 10 different “polychords” with similar construction. I am not concerned these polychords play back correctly or play back at all. Engraving options doesn’t seem to allow this particular option, and building these polycords from scratch is rather daunting. Can you or maybe Lillie Harris or Christina Kaboth provide directions on constructing these chords in Dorico? Exactly what characters must I enter into the popover to create these polychords?
When I write e|bb7 in the popover I get exactly that. Maybe you have to set the desired look in engraving options < chord symbols < polychords
Use | and not /.
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I’m no expert on chord symbols, but I think / is used to set an altered root whereas | creates a polychord.
I am a dinosaur. Thank you Maarten and Janus. It is indeed as simple as | and not / to create polychords. Actually, the help files do indicate that, I simply missed it and must read more carefully. I’d suggest to the wonderful Ms Lillie perhaps an additional sentence somewhere in the documentation warning / and | in the popover yields very different results, as would \ .
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This is a fascinating thread and I’ve found the digressions quite informative. I’d also like to be able to customize chord suffixes, specifically the 4-3 suspension, as indicated in the attached example.
The sus4-3 and other “moving suspensions” is something I’d like to see in the future too. One other is support for the 2 chord (so, like C2 for instance)—a chord I don’t particularly love, but shows up in gospel, musical, and less often jazz arrangements from time to time and gets requested by clients.
I’m a huge believer in Dorico’s chord approach. Massive time saver! But these edge cases do pose a challenge.
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C2 is easy now, just type Csus2 into the popover, with the engraving options set to not show the sus on that chord. I agree there should be a better options for showing sus4-3 though.
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There we go. Never saw that before. Learning new options every day.
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Everyone should really explore all the options in Engraving Options / Chord Symbols. While I’ll admit the syntax is a bit unusual with that one, it’s clearly an available option under Suspended Notes.
Something like sus4-3 is unfortunately not.
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FWIW, I submitted an (ahem) extended version of this FR in April:
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Except that G2 and Gsus2 are two different chords so ideally I’d need to be able to write both in a score.
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Dorico doesn’t necessarily need to be able to use the “new” chords in playback. Users need to be able to create chord suffixes (sorry, Finale’s terminology) at will. Right now, I’m working on a transcription that uses moving suspended chords often leaving out the 3rd or other specific tone but Dorico doesn’t have these items available. The user should be able to duplicate any chord suffix and edit them as needed.
TL/DR? The software is supposed to support, not impede, the creative process.
Just my €0.02
KM
Out of real curiosity, what is the difference between both? 
C2 is Cadd2 ; so C D E G
Csus2 is C D G
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Interesting: in my experience C2 = Csus2, and “add 2” is shown explicitly.