How do I extend note durations in a piano score without affecting later note values?

Can anyone help with frustrating issue?

Make the D# a half note (in upstem voice 1) and add the E as a separate (downstem) voice.

Thank you for your response, could you be more specific about your directions? I just compose traditional 2-stave classical piano music, I don’t understand “upstem voice 1” and “E” as a separate "“downstem voice” (functional implementation-wise), as the harmonic linearity contains “voices” above both of these. Also "“add” is an unknown factor as well — pen & paper seems still a better option. I do really do thank you for your response :slightly_smiling_face:

I guess what I’m saying is I want to push or retrack note lengths at will, regardless of polyphonic positioning, and in a manner unaffecting surrounding notes. This is basic composition technique in my view, and why Dorico implements erasure and metric "pushing " algorithms as the base functionality (with no easy input alternatives), frankly confounds me. “Upstem” and “downstem” decisions, in my view, often happen way downstream in the compositional process — as products of nuanced compositional and performance retrospection and considerations. That it’s demanded a priori as the input process is “gross”, in all its implications. Dorico is a great program in many rests, but it’s also a Byzantine homologous at the same time.

Here is a sample:

extendNotes.dorico (489.5 KB)

(“Upstem” and “downstem” voices are merely terms Dorico uses to identify the directions stems will go when other voices are present on the same staff.)

If you do want the D sharp and the E below to be notated in the same voice, you can also hit Q to engage chord input, then extend the D sharp with Shift+Alt+right arrow. Having chord input active will prevent Dorico from truncating other notes in the same voice, but of course it does mean that the music will be notated with ties.

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If you turn on Insert mode, then select the D# and press 7 – the E will be ‘pushed’ so that it starts on bar 3, but keeps its duration. Is that what you want?

As a side note, you’ll want to revisit the tempo you inputted. Go ahead and press Shift-+ so that you make sure you get the equals sign instead of the plus sign