I am engraving an opera where all the chord symbols belong to only one instrument (guitar, base, marimba). As you can imagine, currently I’m spending more time hiding chord symbols from all the other instruments than putting in the chords for one player
I would like to request an option to show chord symbols only at the player where they are being entered and nowhere else.
(I was a bit shocked when I entered the first chord symbol in one player that had not had a chord symbol up to this point and realized that now this player has “Show chord symbols” activated and I had to go back and hide all the chord symbols up to this point that this player just doesn’t need. So from now on it’s one more player that I have to hide this symbols for…)
Thanks!
(If this option already exist, please nudge me in the right direction
How are you hiding chord symbols? Hopefully not manually, one by one, but instead by going to Setup mode and telling Dorico whether or not to show all chord symbols for each player?
By default yes, Dorico will update a player’s settings to show chord symbols if you start inputting chord symbols on a staff belonging to that player (see the Result on the page linked here). If you don’t want that to happen, try not to input chord symbols on staves on which you don’t want to show chord symbols.
There is also an option to show chord symbols only once at the top of each system.
The problem lies in the “project-wide on a per-player basis”.
I have a Marimba player that needs chord symbols activated because he has some chord symbols in some bars of flow number 3. But in all the other flows of the opera I have chord symbols for bass and guitar players, so whenever I add a chord symbol for the guitar player it automatically gets added to the marimba - where I don’t want it.
To make things more complicated, the guitar player only has chord symbols where he actually is meant to play a chord. When he is playing a composed melody, the base player has chord symbols. So whenever I add a chord symbol in either the guitar player or the bass player, in 98% of the time I have to hide them in the other one - and the marimba.
Here’s a screenshot (I skipped some other players) of the material, maybe it becomes clearer now. Top line is guitar, second line is bass, bottom 2 are marimba. Each of them has some chord symbols which are always meant only for the one player they belong to.
Maybe I don’t completely understand your situation, but wouldn’t Chord Symbol Regions (CSRs) solve your problem?
In some projects of mine, I just set all players to show Chords only in CSRs, and paint them where I need them…?
I recently discovered Chord Symbol Regions which is maybe what you need to use here. Hide chord symbols for each player in Setup mode, and use Chord Symbol Regions to show them when required.
Does the setting for rhythm section instruments only (as in, only rhythm section instruments held by that player) work in this case? I can’t remember off the top of my head whether guitar as well as bass is treated as a rhythm section instrument, but I strongly suspect the Marimba won’t be.
Otherwise, yes you can use chord symbol regions as others have now suggested. It was a feature introduced for just such circumstances.
Also as an option is local chord symbols. By default, chord symbols are essentially a system-attached item, but you can input local chord symbols (usually this is for situations where you want to show a simpler or different chord for one player only).
