I’m a solo guitarist and have been using Microsoft Word for writing out cover songs to play at gigs.
I initially stretch the lyrics to match the timing, melodies and chord changes of the songs by listening. I then write the chords above the lyrics and occasionally write melody notes between the chords for the guitar. I use an android to read the songs while performing.
Would changing to writing charts with Dorico help me or is it like Cubase that takes months to learn before you can be efficient with it? I’d like to write the notes out for the vocals also.
I can read and write basic charts for guitar, piano and bass and have Cubase Pro 14 to create drum tracks and basic scoring but I’m sure I need some guidance to use Dorico. Is it user friendly or should I just use Cubase for the basic scoring? I play basically just popular music with guitar, vocals and harmonica.
You didn’t say what gaps or new capabilities you might be looking for, so I could easily miss here. What about trying the iPad version first? It’s a little more visual in its tools, adaptable to gigs etc but it isn’t Android. What has been your experience with the score editor in C14?
I have very little experience with the score editor in Cubase.
I’m not looking for new capabilities but basically looking for which one, Cubase or Dorico is the one to learn for what I do instead of using the MS Word program.
And thanks for responding.
Probably the best way to answer this question is to either try Dorico via the free 60-day trial license (Try Dorico Now for 60 Days for Free | Steinberg) or, if it will meet your needs (see Compare the Versions of Dorico: Elements & Pro | Steinberg for comparisons of the features in the various versions), just get the free SE version. Or maybe even just get the SE version first, get a feel for the interface and workflow there, and then see if you need more capabilities, and, if so, which of the higher end versions has the additional bits and pieces you need (and do the trial after some time with SE).
For the sort of needs you are talking about, my feeling is, though Cubase 14’s new score editor is based on Dorico (I haven’t used it enough to get a feel for any user interface differences between the two as I mostly use Dorico Pro when making lead sheets and the Cubase score editor only when I want to try and resolve issues in what I’m hearing but unable to quickly figure out in the key editor), having to go into Cubase every time you want to make a lead sheet-/fakebook-style chart would be pretty cumbersome. Of course, if you’re already doing a Cubase project (e.g. for backing tracks) for the song you’re working on, maybe it wouldn’t be such a hassle.
As for my own thoughts on ease of learning/using Dorico for these types of charts, my feeling is that it takes a while to get used to Dorico’s conventions, especially the many keyboard shortcuts for things you may want to do frequently. For example, what number do you use for entering a quarter note, an eighth note, a half note, etc., or how to you change the length of a note you’ve already entered with the wrong length or move the note earlier or change what note it is? I’d guess that, if you’re using Dorico regularly, this will probably develop quickly, but my own uses (mainly for doing lead sheets of my original songs once a song is finished, and sometimes for working on the song’s melody during the writing process) are few and far between, so I tend to have to refresh my memory on at least a few of the basics each time I use it.
Having used other notation programs in the past (originally Passport Designs Encore, then moving to Finale Allegro and eventually Finale Pro before switching to Dorico Pro), I do think Dorico is way easier to get into than Finale. Its defaults in terms of how it prints parts you enter are usually reasonable, but, if you’re looking for a lot of control, or looks different from the defaults (e.g. I already had my preferences for how I like my lead sheets to look in terms of things like page numbers, footers, etc., and Dorico’s default lead sheets did not match those, which is the key reason I ended up needing to go to Dorico Pro as the lower end versions did not support the customizations I “needed”), finding ways around those things can sometimes be tricky (e.g. in my latest lead sheet, it took me a very long time to figure out how to work around the ways Dorico 5 handles lyrics with both melismas and hyphens in the same word – I wanted an underscore on the syllable with the melisma and a hyphen between that and the next syllable, depending on how I entered the word, it either gave me the underscore with no hyphen or multiple hyphens and no underscore).
There are also lots of videos out there that can be helpful for getting started with Dorico, and watching those can be helpful for getting started.
My Android tablet isn’t big enough to make using lead sheets feasible, so I do lyrics/chords somewhat similarly to what you mention (only in Notepad, using the markups my LyricPad app supports for displaying and sorting them). However, if it is convenient to use PDF lead sheets on your tablet, I’d think Dorico, maybe even in the basic SE version, would probably be a pretty good choice for making them efficiently, once you get used to the workflow and some basic keyboard shortcuts. In this context, I wouldn’t likely have needed the extras that Pro provides since I wouldn’t be as fussy about formatting, and there would probably be way less need for working around Dorico’s defaults.
Wow, that’s exactly what I needed to know and thank you so much for going into all that detail Rick.
It certainly will weigh heavily on whether or not to purchase Dorico Pro.
Because you would be coming into this with no previous Finale or Sibelius experience, I think you should find Dorico fairly easy to learn. Most of the people who complain of difficulty expect Dorico to act like some previous notation app they’ve used. You don’t have that burden!
As a wise friend used to say, “Expectations are the seeds of resentment.”
**Leigh
Hi Robert,
I have Cubase and Dorico.
My advice would be to try Cubase 14 first, and see how you get on. The score editor is now based on Dorico, and you can use the other Cubase editors to edit the music as well.
Thanks Richard. I do believe that is what I’ll be doing.
Thank you. That’s kind of why I asked in advance. I didn’t want to have to unlearn one program if I had to switch to another in the future.