I have seen 7-string guitar parts written two ways: treble clef, bass clef like piano left hand (preferable for readability).
Where or how can I find a bass clef C instrument that sounds the same pitches as a piano’s bass clef staff?
Is there a reason you don’t want to use a normal grand staff (piano style).
If not, bassoon or trombone would probably work.
If you’re on 3.5, use the Clef and Transposition Override per Layout feature to set any Clef you want.
I see “Clef and Transposition Overrides…”, and I click it, but nothing happens.
I like the idea of using piano staff if I can get rid of the treble clef staff. The treble clef guitar staff sounds an octave too high on playback; the piano bass clef is the correct pitch. So I have been using the guitar treble clef staff, which works fine.
If I could make the piano treble clef disappear I would be ok. I’m pretty new with Dorico, so my attempts today and yesterday to make the piano treble clef have not worked.
What would be the best way forward so I would end up with a treble clef working like the regular guitar treble clef, and a bass clef staff playing in the same register as a piano?
I would do this in Dorico Pro (but it might not work in Elements)
- Start with a normal guitar staff.
- RIght click, select Staff > Add Staff Below
- Create a bass clef on the bottom staff and set the Octave Shift property to 1.
The top staff will play an octave lower, like normal guitar notation, but the bottom staff will play at the written pitch.
If you want the treble clef to be written at pitch instead of an octave higher, create a new treble clef and set its octave shift property to 1.
That way, you should find that guitar-specific notation like fingering still works because Dorico still “knows” the instrument is a guitar.
IIRC it’s the instrument that transposes, not the clef.
Yes, the instrument transposes, but the octave shift property of clefs adds or subtracts octaves to that.
If I understood what the OP wants, it’s actually similar to the old “high bass clef” notation for horns, where middle C on the treble clef sounds the same pitch as C on the second space of the bass clef. The only difference is that for guitar the treble clef is transposed down an octave and the bass clef is written at pitch, but for a horn in F the treble clef is transposed down a 5th and the bass clef up a 4th. In both cases, the basic transposition comes from the instrument definition, but you need to add an octave transposition to the bass clef.
It’s slightly OT, but I don’t consider an instrument transposing when a clef indicates the sounding pitch (unlike piccolo or double bass, where it doesn’t)
AFAIK The guitar is like the piccolo or DB: it always transposes at the octave (regardless of treble or bass clef), so I expect Dorico (and Finale, etc.) to handle guitar transposition the way it handles Picc. or DB.