The add intervals popover is fairly straightforward to use. With the input caret active as in your first image, Shift-I, “-3,-5” would have given you the A and F you wanted.
For me at this time, the interval popover is just too unintuitive when using a pen, however I see it could work really well if using the computer keyboard to input notes.
Fortunately - the chords icon button worked a treat for my situation.
Good to have both options.
I’m new to Dorico, so I’m sure I’ll have a few more really obvious questions in the next few days until I become familiar with the work flow.
However, Dorico does make a great job of presenting music.
The results are very readable.
Dear Dave,
You probably noticed it while hovering the mouse over that chord button (also known as qord button) : you can toggle it with q letter, which makes it faster, even with mouse notation.
eg. Say you just entered a G and your next note is going to be an E. Just pressing E would produce the E a minor 3rd down (nearest pitch), whereas Shift-Alt E would force it to be a major 6th up.
I see. It ONLY works for sequential note entry, not for stacking notes. I guess once you know, you know, but I think “Input next pitch above/below” would be clearer for learners.
@tsharli if you’re new to Dorico, you might like our First Steps guide which covers a lot of the fundamentals of note input, including sequential notes and chords.
Stacking chords defaults to nearest up. BUT any forcing applies only in relation to the initial note, not the last note stacked (this can be confusing).
See what happens if you press q to invoke chord, then enter A. Next ctrl-alt D (enters D below). Then E (enters E above the original A,not the nearest one to the D)
Thanks @Lillie_Harris. I have gone through some of it, plus Youtube tutorials, which have been probably the most helpful.
You (or at least I) don’t always remember everything, however. The reference card is the first thing I check.
I ran into the same thing with the shift-alt+, and wondered for a moment what was happening. @Lillie, maybe you could add something to the manual at that location about using the Chords command. I was just about to mutter about this being something I missed about Finale till I read this thread
@Marcabru I don’t fully understand the context of this comment, could you clarify where you’re suggesting to add mention of using Chords to input chords? And for what reason?
In the full Operation Manual, there’s a dedicated set of steps that goes through inputting chords. Step 6 includes a tip about inputting a lower pitch rather than a higher pitch when building up chords.
Lillie, I was looking at the Note Entry material. As I just wanted a second note I wasn’t thinking of it as a chord. And with that memory of Finale, I was thinking there might be a way to compile a chord step by step – as indeed there is, from the Chord tool.
When I noticed the Shift+Alt+Note letter entry combination, at first I thought it was the answer to my need, but found by trying that it’s really for what it says, i.e. octave displacement. (Which is handy to know, by the way.)
Usually I’m using a MIDI keyboard for entry, but it wasn’t switched on, and owing to some kind of configuration issue, Dorico doesn’t see it unless it is switched on before loading Dorico. So, I was just looking for a quick way to achieve my end.
