Position indicators for guitar - feature request

Dorico
1

Hello,
I have a feature request for Dorico that would be especially important for Dorico Elements users that work with guitar scores.

I am using Dorico Elements 5 for guitar notation and it works great for most cases. I just found this small omission that seems like very simple fix to implement.

I would love to have an ability to have position indication without the barre sign. For example, just “IV” instead of “CIV”. Maybe it would be possible to just add a button inside the barree playing technique to hide the letter C - I think it would solve the problem. Or just make separate playing technique for position, the same as barre, just without the “C”.

I know there are some workarounds (like custom text, but not perfect as they do not have lines functionality built in).

I found this great solution but as I understand it does not work for Dorico Elements
https://forums.steinberg.net/t/barres-and-fret-numbers/818042

Thank you!

1 Like
2

Not likely.

3

Why do you think so?

4

Here’s the thing: Commenting about how difficult or easy it would be to implement a certain feature into Dorico is supposed to be highly inappropriate on this forum.
I suspect the reason is that we as users have no way of actually knowing how easy (or not…) this would be. And in order to spare the developers the effort of continuously explaining their work to us, instead of actually implementing said features, suggesting a level of difficulty is very much frowned upon.
I myself struggle with this notion every once in a while myself, but it is what it is.
That’s where Derrek’s remark is coming from.

That said, and I’m channeling Cato here, I really do think that Dorico could be smarter concerning positions, TAB, fingering and chord diagrams.
My solution has been to create Playing Techniques that provide this kind of thing. And sometimes I use a guitar VST that actually responds to these position markers, which makes playback very realistic.
Custom-made Playing Techniques can also easily use extender lines and such.
I’d be willing to provide a sample project, outlining this in action, if you like.

All the best,
Benji

1 Like
5

Thank you for your explanation.

I am new to this forum so I do not know yet what is inappropriate here, ok I will not make such comments in the future.

Anyway I was talking about something that is in fact implemented already in slightly different manner for other techniques. Also - it is a very basic functionality and something used everywhere in guitar scores. It is just a shame that it demands a custom solution in this moment of software’s evolution - being not implemented as a native thing in such a great and modern music editor which I absolutely love using.

I understand that custom playing techniques can help with this issue, but they are unavailable in Dorico Elements, which aside of few small things like this is perfectly suited to writing and editing guitar music.

Or maybe I am wrong and there is some way to use/create custom playing techniques in Elements?

Thanks a lot!

6

There is indeed no way to create your own playing technique appearances in Dorico Elements. Thanks for the request for alternative appearances for position indicators. I’ve made a note of it, and we’ll think about how we might be able to support this in future.

2 Likes
7

Thank you very much for your answer, I will be looking forward to any updates affecting Dorico Elements, especially regarding guitar fingerings in general!

Best wishes!