How to Input Pick Up Notes or Anacrusis

Dorico
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I thought I would share how I finally figured out the decimal system to enter pick-up notes.

The first step is to determine the beat unit of your time signature (denominator).

Then use the popover window Shift M, enter your meter, then a comma, and the number of beat units (or portions of a beat) for your pick-up.

In 4/4, if you wanted to add a quarter note pick-up, you type: 4/4,1 because a quarter note is 1 beat unit.

Hence:
4/4,.5 is an eighth note pick-up because it’s half of a beat unit
4/4,1.5 is a dotted quarter pick-up
4/4,2 is a half note pick up.

The same system works for ¾, 2/4, or any other meter with the quarter as the beat unit.

If the meter is 2/2 and you want to enter a quarter note pick up: 2/2,.5

For compound meters, the eighth note is the beat unit, so if you wanted to add an eight note pick-up, you would NOT enter 6/8,.5 like in 4/4, you would enter 6/8,1 since an eighth note is only 1 beat unit in compound meters.

Hence:
9/8,3 = a dotted quarter pick-up because 3 beat units (eighth) equals a dotted quarter.
12/8,.5 = 16th note pick-up

Hope that helps.

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The pertinent manual page is here, and explains it pretty well, I think.

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@dan_kreider. I didn’t stumble on that as I couldn’t find a subheading for pick up, nor did I see that when I searched “pick-up” or other possible terms. It is a bit under explained. But thank you for finding it. Would be nice if there was a sub-heading.

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Hi Beth, sorry you weren’t able to find the docs for adding pick-up bars. There is an introduction/explanation of what pick-up bars here, where you can find other names (like anacrusis) and the explanation that they exist as part of a time signature. You can then find dedicated steps for adding pick-up bars here (which was added in the 3.5 manual separately from time signatures for this exact reason, to help users who are looking for this specifically).

I’ll make a note of the idea of having a separate table for pick-up bars on the time signatures popover page, with perhaps a few more examples.

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Thanks for this, Beth. Gotta say, this design is slightly anti-musical, in that the beat unit in 6/8, 9/8 etc is really a dotted quarter. I spent way too much time trying to make this work until stumbling on the idea that 1=eighth note in 9/8, because I was figuring that .3=eighth note. Haha! No, I’m not expecting Dorico to allow me to establish the beat unit, because the company has other things to fix, but still…

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I mean, 3 x .3 isn’t 1… :sunglasses:

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Believe me, I had my calculator out!

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If it helps, the v4 manual page for the time signatures popover does indeed include a separate table to pick-up bars with examples spelled out more specifically. There’s an example for a 6/8 time signature with pick-up that should demonstrate entering e.g. 2 for 2 eighth notes in the pick-up. There’s also a note that clarifies the link between the note value/rhythmic unit in the time signature and how that relates to pick-up beats.

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Thank you!
I’ve had just the same problem. This was very revealing.

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Second day with Dorico (5SE)! Search in online manual didn’t reveal under “anacrusis” (even after allowing search outside titles - a separate step) - too many false hits with “pick-up” , but this forum entry was my route to the info. Thanks to the OP for the post!

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Welcome to the forum @david.powell.au ! Glad you found the answer, but sorry you weren’t able to get good results when searching the manual.

That said, I’m seeing relevant results at the top when searching the Dorico SE 5.1 manual for “anacrusis”, is this different to what you got?