A Dorico-beginner question, obviously. I’ve used Finale for many years, and the key combinations to make it do something are well-ingrained. I have Dorico (trial version) on my Windows 11 desktop system. I’ve figured out how to write a very simple piece (piano part only), just a scale to be my first Dorico “piece”. Looks right on the screen.
I’ve been using the PDF Dorico Manual to try to learn it. Was a little put off to find it’s nearly 2,000 pages. Is there a beginner’s section in there somewhere? I’d rather not have to dig thru the Encyclopedia Britannica every time I want to learn a new key combination.
I have my first “piece” on the Dorico screen. To try to “play” it as I often did in Finale, I just clicked on the PLAY heading at the top. Big mistake, the entire score vanished, to be replaced by something that looks like a player-piano roll. It didn’t seem to be “playing”, no sound or a moving pointer to show what notes were being played from second to second, etc.
I could re-enter the 2,000-page Manual to find an explanation, or I could ask somebody here, in hopes that I could get a quickie answer in less than a few days, that took someone 5 seconds to write.
So, two questions:
1.) Is there a “Beginner” section somewhere in the Britannica so I don’t have to come here and bother people for each little thing?
2.) If I have a score showing on the screen, how do I get it to PLAY? I have a hunch all I have to do is click a right-arrow or some other thing, as I always did in Finale. Mucho thanks for any replies, I hope to quickly get to where I can figure out such answers myself so I don’t have to bug people.
The Dorico Resources page will give you videos and tutorials to help you avoid trying to digest the entire manual before you begin. The First Steps Guide is a great way to start out.
An understandable error. Play mode gives one the opportuntity to assign VST’s and instruments to Players and tracks much like a DAW. To start playing your music, click the arrowhead at the top right of your screen (where what looks like Tape Recorder controls exist).
If you still do not hear sounds, use the Play pull-down menu to apply a Playback Template. For a Pro user, try one of the the HALion HSO or Iconica Sketch options.
Hmm, guess that was too easy. Got on my Windows 11 desktop and double-clicked on the Dorico 5 icon. And it sat there like I’d done nothing. Double-clicked on Microsoft Word, and that came up immediately and ran like normal.
So then I tried right-clicking the Dorico 5 icon, and a number of options came up, including “Run as Administrator”. Clicked on that one, and the expected small window came up asking if I wanted to let it make changes to my system. Clicked “Yes”, the small window disappeared, and then nothing.
Dorico doesn’t seem to want to run on my system, although it doesn’t produce any error messages, just sits there like I hadn’t done anything, hadn’t given it any commands etc.
A little odd, since when I installed it a few days ago it ran fine. What did I do to make it angry at me? Probably something very beginner-ish.
Maybe the Icon I double-clicked on, was the wrong icon? It’s brown with what looked like a white capital D on it. What’s yours look like? When I installed this Trial version of Dorico and activated it, it provided half a dozen icons.
Sorry I’m bugging you once again, just a few minutes after you helped me. Hopefully I can get my act together and stop with my beginner mistakes quickly.
Oops, never mind. I just closed all programs and shut down my Win11 system. Waited a few minutes, then started it again. When it came up, I double-clicked the Dorico 5 icon, and this time it came up and was happy. Guess I shoulda restarted it (or cold-booted, which I prefer) after loading and activating Dorico.
And hitting the spacebar worked! The player-piano roll moved from note to note as I heard the scale in a default and friendly tempo. Hooray!
Just one more ? for now: How do I get rid of the player-piano display and get back to showing the musical score on the screen? Old Finale habits die hard (Finale didn’t have a player-piano display, ONLY the score display, which suited me fine. )
BTW, the Bach Fugue No. 16, which came up when I first started Dorico a few days ago, also comes up fine and plays very nicely, with good piano sound, and this time with a line moving from note to note, very Finale-like. Played with the Stop/Start/BackToBeginning controls to figure out what did what, pretty intuitive.
Now, instead of having ten tons of Dorico stuff to learn, now I only have 9.99 tons… and I’ve got what I need to get started. Thanks again folks!
Also, spacebar plays from where you last stopped. P plays from where you select. Select one note or any item such as a tempo mark or dynamic to play the whole score from that point. If you have multiple instruments and just want to listen to one instrument select several of the notes and press P.
