What is the correct procedure to create the following?
a whole note (occupying measure 1) tied to a dotted half note (in measure 2)
I see I can do it either by entering a double-dotted whole note (clever, but not obvious) or by entering a whole note, then a dotted half note, and adding a slur from the whole note to the dotted half (looks fine, but using a slur to mean tie seems wrong).
What does NOT work is entering a whole note with a tie, then a half note, and the attempting to add a dot to the half note. I feel this would be the most intuitive (and similar to other programs), but it doesn’t work.
Create the whole note, engage the tie, then add a dotted half note (7+.)
If you’ve already entered a whole note tied to a half note and want to add the dot, select the note, and press alt(cmd) + shift then arrow key (right) to lengthen the note.
It can also save you (and others) time if you search the forum. Questions very similar to this were asked and discussed 10 days ago, 4 days ago, and again 2 days ago.
Why do you think this would be the most intuitive?
It is essential that you learn that, in Dorico, a tied note is a single object. It only appears with a tie because of the notation options (let’s call them conventions) you have (perhaps implicitly) chosen to apply.
So…
Actually it is obvious. The note is a double dotted semibreve. Trying to stitch together notes of different lengths is not obvious unless that was way you always had to do it in other programs.
One of the things that’s confusing here is that Dorico behaves differently with dots specified before a note versus after. With dots specified before, it’s easy to enter whole note, tie, dotted half note – but this doesn’t work with dots specified after. I think this is poor design, insofar as it’s reasonable to expect to be able to get comparable results with different input options. I also think it contradicts the explicit help text (“With ‘after inputting note’ chosen … rhythm dots will affect the last input note.”).
As someone new to Dorico, I’ve found that I get more predictable results by specifying duration before pitch and accidentals/dots/articulations before duration. That’s not how I would prefer to enter things, but I’ve been forcing myself to learn.
As someone who has posted a similar topic in the past, I completely agree. The fact that similar questions keep coming up could be proof that the current version of Dorico has not yet implemented a design that meets natural human expectations.
You either have to leave Note Entry and go back to the whole note and press T (possibly a bit annoying, but gets it done);
or increase the note’s duration with the arrow keys, rather than working with actual notes (reasonably quick, once you remember it);
or work out the duration of the entire note and enter it as one (easiest, but requires thought).
There may be other methods too.
I’ll grant that this particular instance might not be the best showcase for the behaviour: but the trade-off is that it provides greater benefits in 90% of other situations.
A whole note tied to a dotted half note is basically a double-dotted whole note. If it was single-dotted, you simply pressed [.] to enter such; with double- and triple-dotted notes, however, you need to hold [Alt] (Windows) and then cycle through the types of dots with [.]. There is no need to enter two notes and tie them, except if the total length does not fit single-, double- and triple-dotted durations.