I know I’ve been carping on and on about note entry - but I have been listening to all of you and refining my understanding of it. So one more noodge from me (not nudge but a yiddishism for a slight irritation or nag).
In pitch-first entry what exactly is the purpose of the ghost-note, or the ‘remembering’ of the pitch just entered? (It’s very Proustian
It has to be canceled each time (Num0) to enter a duration for advancing on the grid by a different value than the grid itself.
The possible advantage of using it for repeatedly entering the same note is easily accomplished by jumping over to duration-first entry (since it is so easy to switch modes.)
I read somewhere online that the ghost-note was added as an aid to people coming to Dorico from Finale. But it does the opposite - Finale never ‘remembered’ the pitches just entered - so it creates a very different experience - and to what advantage I am not sure.
That would explain why the ghost is there as I first push down the pitch-keys.
But not why the ghost remains after I hit the duration key and the note has been entered. Why would I need to be told by the ghost what was just entered when I can now see it as an entry?
Since you ask … for pitch-first entry I think it would make more sense if
I press down on the pitch keys (and I see the ghost as the keys are depressed)
with my other hand I press on the duration key. Entry is accomplished
Upon releasing the keys there is no ghost note remaining. (This is what I would change from present programming)
Now, If I then type a duration (without pitch keys) the cursor moves by the duration I just pressed. (No need to type Num[0], no need to change my grid for a rest of smaller duration value.)
But if instead I depress pitch keys, I now start the next pitch entry.
If it were done this way - I would never need to hit Num[0} to clear the ghost note or invoke the rest key. After every note entry you are back in ‘cursor move mode’ unless you depress pitch keys. (I really don’t need the ghost to indicate what I’ve just entered because … I’ve just entered it and I can see it in front of me.)
I’ll grant you that the ghost note is helpful as I depress the pitch keys - as a 69 year old with shaky diabetic fingers, there’s often an unwanted pitch that’s been added to what I want to enter. Seeing that before I enter the duration is definitely helpful. But having it remain after entry is of no help.
If the ghost disappeared after each entry, I could be entering rests (or advancing the cursor if you prefer) with no extra keystrokes involved. The rests would not visually appear (until the next note entry) but I would be entering them as metrical values that advanced the cursor. This would most resemble the entry mode of both Finale and Sibelius and of handwritten notation as well.
Unless you need to “noodle” (playing the keyboard to get the right note before you then decide to commit it to Note Entry) - I maintain that pitch AFTER duration (the other way round) is probably easier – or less complicated, at least, as you don’t have ghost notes, you just select the duration and play the pitches. It’s easier to advance the caret by a different duration than the one you last entered, etc.
Unfortunately my creative process doesn’t happen perfectly and instantaneously as I work at a computer. I simply can’t imagine being creative without noodling.
In the old days I would sketch at a piano and the walk over to my score on a desk, pick up my pencil and then enter what I had worked out.
But now my Dorico score is my sketch pad as well as the place I enter my final results. My orchestrations and arrangements are contrapuntal by nature and have to be worked out - and I do this in notation, not in a DAW. (I have created music in a DAW, but I prefer notation as a creative environment. This goes to whether your inner ear ‘hears’ without notation or not. Some of us hear the shapes and energy [vectors] of musical lines without hearing the actual pitches. Notation assists us in organizing tonality.)
I wonder if anyone creating music (as opposed to engraving or copying) doesn’t ‘noodle’ somewhere … does their song or arrangement emerge perfect and finished on first try? If so they are the rare exception. (Thank you Mendelssohn for full-scoring that one symphonic movement without any sketch beforehand and ruining my argument! I take comfort from Stravinsky who never wrote away from the piano.)
Michael
P.S. I’ve yet to hear a good reason why the ghost notes are there. In duration-first entry you don’t need a ghost after the entry to tell you what you’ve just done. Why then in pitch first?
