I do have a reason for this though it sounds weird. I have a concert band piece and I want the key signature hidden in all instruments on the score. Dorico Help is not helping. I went to Notation Options and selected key signatures and the clicked “hide key signatures” but they are still there for the transposing instruments. There also does not seem to be a hide option in the properties panel either. Can this be done and, if so, how?
Thanks very much.
Hi @ghfagan51,
for some instruments you have the option to choose an instrument with no key signature, from the instrument picker (you can change the instruments as desired from Setup):
Alternatively you can Edit the instrument definition yourself (also from Setup), and uncheck Use key signature for the desired instruments:
Another option is to just use an atonal key signature (was just adding this as I saw that @Janus suggested it here below):
Could you just use the key signature ‘atonal’?
Christian,
It sounds like a can’t do this globally for the entire score. I have 45 of these 1 page scores to go through and change every instrument that transposes one at a time, right? I was really hoping to find a “hide key signature” option that would hide all key signatures globally in one fell swoop. All the notes are already entered and I don’t want those notes to change pitch. Will setting up the atonal key signature keep all the notes as currently written?
Thanks.
Janus,
See my comment above about not wanting to change the current pitches. I don’t want the notes already there to move if I change this key to atonal.
Thanks.
gary
Key signatures in Dorico do not change pitches!!! They just determine which accidentals will be shown.
(As usual you can check by experimenting… change the key signature and if it’s not what you want ctrl-z to undo. It will take a few seconds)
Janus,
See the screen shot. So, if I go with an atonal key signature the 3rd Clarinet part will still show A natural to Bb with the flat beside the B or will the accidentals I have written disappear?
Gary
With atonal you should see no key signatures at all in either concert or transposed view for any instrument - just the ‘atonal’ signpost.
(If you do, they are probably independent key signatures)
Christian and Janus,
I just tried the “atonal” key signature work-around and it appears that this does what I need it to. All pitches stayed the same and all accidentals were unchanged.
Thank you both so much.
Gary
Glad it helped, @ghfagan51, but this is not a workaround: it is a functionality designed for exactly that specific need.
Oops,
Actually it did change some of the accidentals. It would be nice to have a “hide key signatures” option for an entire flow. Oh well. Back to work.
Thanks.
Can you give an example of something it changed?
Aaron,
I am attaching two screen shots. The first is the way it should look but without the key signatures showing. The second is what I ended up with after changing the key signature to “atonal”. As you can see, the two match up pretty well except:
Bass Cl. got an added sharp on the low “F”
Alto Sax. got an added sharp on the “G”
Tenor Sax lost the sharp sign on the “F”.
Thanks for any advice. I can send you the original Dorico file if that helps.
Gary
Aaron,
See above to see what happened when I changed the key signature to “atonal”. I am attaching the original Dorico file below. The goal is to eliminate the key signatures in 40 other sheets like this one with the least amount of time it will take.
Thanks.
Gary
Atonal Key Experiment.dorico (1.6 MB)
Well, that’s because the bass clarinet originally had an F#, and the sax originally had a G# – but the # was in the key signature. When you remove the key signature, you need to have an accidental to indicate that – as @Janus said, the pitches don’t actually change, just how they’re notated.
Aaron,
Understood. I spent 3 days working on a big bunch of these thinking I could hide the key signature in the properties panel later. I should have checked beforehand.
My bad. Thanks so much.
Gary
If you want to change the pitches of notes after you change the key signature to atonal, you can do it with the Notes and Intervals popover.
For example, the bass clarinet originally had 2 sharps in the key signature, meaning that all Fs and Cs are sharp after changing to an atonal key signature. If you want to change them all to F and C natural, then select everything in the bass clarinet staff (or in the bass clarinet layout), filter for notes and chords, open the notes popover with Shift+I, type f#=f,c#=c and hit Enter.
