Insert rests as part of lyric input

Hi All,

I wasn’t able to find an answer to this via a forum search, but if the answer is already there, thanks in advance for linking to to the post.

When writing hymns that have multiple verses, it is common to sometimes have a particular note that the choir sings in Vs 1 but does not sing in Vs 2, etc. From a visual perspective, it would be helpful to insert a rest symbol within the lyrics input panel so that a choir isn’t confused by a blank spot in the music. Is there a way to do this? When using Sibelius, I would insert a rest as a symbol and drag it to the desired spot, but that led to frequent formatting issues.

See the attachment for an example. In beat 4 of the measure, the choir doesn’t sing on vs 1 and 2 but does sing it on vs 3. I was hoping to insert an eighth note rest right after “siblings” and “them” in vs 1 and 2, respectively.

Thank you for any insight you might have!

You can’t insert a rest directly as a lyric, but you can certainly insert a text item that looks like a rest. Use Shift+X to open the text popover, and set the character style to ‘Music text’, which will use the Bravura Text font, then copy and paste the rest symbol you need from this page. I would also advise disabling the ‘Avoid collisions’ property to make it easier to position the text without upsetting the staff spacing.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!

“This page” has gone dark, alas

Hi @DavidCarltonAdams I am not sure if this is what the original link was linking to, but maybe was this Rests - Standard Music Font Layout (SMuFL) or this Rests · Standard Music Font Layout

Meanwhile you can in Dorico right click on a text input field (using the text popover with Shift+X) and choose Insert Music text…, and in the next window you can choose among a plethora of symbols from the different categories, and the recently used will be displayed conveniently.

1 Like

Oops!
Too slow.

1 Like

I would recommend inputting this as a lyric, then using Edit Single Lyric to change it to the desired rest glyph using something like MusGlyphs. I did that exact thing today. Input a spot as rrrr, then convert “rrrr” to MusGlyphs, and it’ll turn into an eighth rest. I usually also need to shift it up a little and make it bigger.

The benefit here is that it acts like a lyric, and it follows normal lyric adjustments, like shifting baselines.

3 Likes

Dan, I just found your post and I’m trying to do exactly this. How do you change the glyph to MusGlyphs? I’m in the edit single lyric box and for the font there are only 2 choices.

I recommend creating a character style called “Lyric rests” or something, and making the needed changes there.

These settings look pretty good:

Then apply the character style to the selected text using Edit Single Lyric.

Works like a charm.

1 Like

ah, ok, I will give that a try. Thanks, Dan.

I guess I don’t have MusGlyphs as a font choice. If I view the font map, I could probably use Finale engraver or Bravara.

You have to download and install it. It’s free online.

1 Like

Thank you Dan. It appears you created this font. I finally got it to work… This will work great for many hymn type documents I work on.

1 Like

I cannot get it to be an eight note rest. Is there something additional I have to type in apart from the four r’s. (rrrr)?

You should create and select Lyrics rests under Character Styles.

Jesper

I don’t get that…

You should create a Character Style (Lyrics rests) and not a Paragraph Style.

Jesper