I’m working on some educational materials and I want to find an efficient way to mark beat lines over the music to help with counting. (Dorico Pro 5)
My first experiment was to add to the playing techniques library a simple vertical line (text version) and give it a shortcut and all that.
However, the height of the line is dependent on the height of the note (see image). Is there a way to make a string of beat marks that are horizontally aligned?
Maybe too much work, but you could use a second voice with hidden noteheads, stems and ledger lines.
Jesper
lines.dorico (494.6 KB)
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I was able to do this by adding notes in an additional voice with an altered notehead set and ledger lines and noteheads hidden.
Dorico uses the Larger Noteheads set by default, so I edited the Default Noteheads set; on the Stem tab of the Edit Notehead dialog for noteheadBlack, I changed Stem Up SE X to 0.7, to get the stem centered on the notehead. Then I added quarter notes in a new upstem voice, choosing a pitch that was higher than any of my entered pitches, and changed their Notehead Set to Default Noteheads. In Engrave mode, I hid the noteheads and ledger lines for these notes.
Edit: @jesele’s idea is probably easier – uses hidden notes like mine, but utilizes a playing technique instead of mucking around with editing a notehead set.
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Great minds think alike @asherber
Jesper
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This is really helpful. Thank you.
Note the playing technique continuation type->Repeat the sign, so you can select all the hidden notes, and add just one instance.
Jesper
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Select all the PTs, right click to group them. This will add a transition line so, in the properties panel set line type to none.
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That’s even better @Craig_F
Don’t know why I didn’t think of that, since I use it a lot.
Jesper
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Follow-up question: how to you hide those elements?. Also I tried creating a second voice and my playing technique defaulted to below the staff. Thanks.
If you switch to Engrave mode, you can use the Properties panel to hide them.
Make sure you create an upstem voice. The default voice in a staff is upstem, so the first new voice you create will be downstem. You need to create one more voice to get another upstem. There’s a small graphic to the lower left of the caret that indicates whether your current voice is upstem or downstem.
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