I'm trying to beam 8th notes but can't get the groupings I want, despite trying several approaches

Dorico
1

My song has a section in 10/8. At one point, there are two measures where I want to beam 8th-notes in a 2 + 3 + 3 + 2 grouping for the first measure and 4 + 2 + 4 for the next measure. I have tried using Edit Menu > Notations > Beaming > Split Beam (as well as Beam Together and Reset Beaming), and no series of steps gets me what I want. I have tried setting up a [2 + 3 + 3 + 2]/8 time signature in the first measure and a [4 + 2 + 4]/8 in the next one, which gets me the correct beaming but I don’t want extra time signatures when I haven’t actually changed the meter. I’ve looked through all the options under Notations/Beam Grouping, and haven’t found anything helpful there.

When I used to use Finale, there was a one-keystroke fix if you wanted to beam or unbeam a couple (or more) notes. Is there something similar in Dorico?

I’ve mostly decided to give up on finding an answer for this specific song - I’ll just put in phrase markings to indicate which notes should be grouped together, and leave the random 8th-note tails flapping in the breeze - but I’m sure this will come up in other songs that I work on.

Any ideas, anyone?

Thanks!

2

(Welcome to the forum)

right-click>beaming… Where you can beam together selections, split beaming, or make unbeamed.

For just two bars, manual beaming like this is the quickest way. If you want to, you can set key commands for these actions or set jump bar aliases to get the single keystroke solution.

3

It’s mind-boggling that the solution was so simple… When I selected the notes and tried to do what looked like the same thing - except that I used the Edit menu to get to Beaming - it did not work; I didn’t realize that it would work by right-clicking. THANK YOU!!!