Notes that share noteheads, how to select between them?

Dorico
1

I’m using Dorico Pro 4 and I’m running into this problem often. I have two voices that share a notehead and I want to tweak the engraving options of one of them.

How can I efficiently select the one I want?

It is often a struggle to do so if the one selected by default when clicking the notehead is not the one I need.

Tried searching the forum, the manual and experimenting. If there’s is something obvious I’m clearly missing it.

Would be grateful for any assistance!

2

This might help (no guarantees given).

After clicking on the wrong note, try using the up- or down arrow. If that does not select the other note, select a note to the right or left of the one you want (in the same voice) and use the left- or right-arrow to move to it. Hopefully it will select the right one. Temporarily move it up or down an octave (using shift + alt+ up/down-arrow), make the changes you want and then move it back to the octave where it was originally.

1 Like
3

Try clicking the stem.

2 Likes
4

Except in Engrave mode, that selects the stem, and not the notehead. I usually do Alt-Shift-click and watch the status bar to see which voice is selected.

2 Likes
5

I rarely have any luck with the arrow keys unfortunately.

I was hoping for a more elegant solution than temporarily moving up/down an octave, but that works. I have not checked thoroughly, but was afraid this workaround would reset some tweak on the note that is temporarily moved out of the way.

Do you know if something like that could happen?

6

When I can I do that to select the note in write mode and then switch to engrave mode. It’s cumbersome but it works.

The problem is if the note I’m trying to select is tied to another one. Then it selects all the noteheads and all I’ve done is transform the problem into a new one: now I have to deselect all the noteheads I don’t want.

I was asking for a more efficient way of doing this. That is, one that does not take a big toll on workflow speed.

7

What are you aiming to do with the selected notehead? There may be a better way to achieve whatever it is you’re trying to do.

2 Likes
8

You could try moving the other note up or down an octave. That way the note you are tweaking stays where it is and the “octaved” note has had no changes made to it, apart from the shift away and then back.

1 Like
9

I usually run into this problem when:

  • I have an arpeggio in one voice (let’s call it voice 1)
  • I need some of those notes to be tied to a chord in another voice (let’s call it voice 2)

Since I can’t just tie notes from one voice to another, I’m forced to:

  1. duplicate in voice 2 the notes that need to be held from voice 1,
  2. tie the duplicates notes to the chord,
  3. hiding the stems from the duplicated notes, and sometimes other fixes too (notecolumn index is another frequent one)
  4. erasing leftover rests

It is tiring to do all of this one a score that requires this kind of writing. So I’m looking into making the process as fluid as possible.

Any help would be appreciated!

10

Of course you can tie one voice to another. Click to select, then Ctrl-click!!

2 Likes
11

It is possible to tie a note in one voice to a note in another voice.

Click the first note, then ctrl/cmd-click the second note and press T.

1 Like
12

Wow, thank you guys! I had tried just pressing T but never tried selecting both notes :person_facepalming: