I was wondering if there are any plans to expand the preferences for piano pedal mark alignment and hook placement, particularly for modern line notation. I refer to “Alfred’s Essentials of Music Notation” by Tom Gerou and Linda Lusk, which provides clear guidelines on proper pedal mark placement and hook positioning.
(Ignore the coda and thumb bracket references, as they are part of separate topics.)
It would be great to see more flexibility in pedal alignment to better accommodate these standard notation practices for Music Teachers National Association.
Thanks for your continued support and development!
Thanks, John. I do know how to manually adjust pedal marks, but it’s one of the more tedious aspects of engraving supplemental piano music. And when layout changes occur, those adjustments often need to be redone. It would be great if future updates included alignment settings or automation to make the process faster and more efficient.
Incidentally, we are fortunate to even have the all-bracket system in Dorico. Apparently, it’s not as well-known outside of the US. Elaine Gould, for example, doesn’t mention this style at all in Behind Bars. Mostly one encounters the composite of Ped. and a line and ending bracket, a less satisfactory way of indicating pedaling in my opinion, because it is less exact in showing precisely where the pedal is to be depressed. This may have had an influence in the lack of choices in Dorico that your post references.
I’m not sure what options we’re missing here, Greg.
Gerou and Lusk want the start of the pedal line (“pedal-down”) aligned with the left-hand side of the notehead, which Dorico does by default. They want the end of the pedal line (“pedal-up”) aligned with the left-hand side of the notehead, which Dorico also does by default. They want the retake centred on the notehead, which Dorico doesn’t do by default but for which there in an engraving option. They want the end of the pedal line aligned with the left-hand side of the barline, if necessary, which Dorico does by default.
Hi Daniel. The horizontal alignment of pedal marks does align correctly, except in the places I point out in the diagram I posted earlier. If the pedal is up at the first beat of a measure, Dorico stops at the barline or the end of a system rather than continuing to the first note. I’ve been manually adjusting those positions. For pedal ending at the beginning of a system, I have to continue the pedal past the first beat in order to get the hook onto that system, then manually adjust it backward.
When I worked with Tom and Linda all those years, they also preferred that the pedal lines align vertically, as well, whenever possible. (There are times when a separate segment is a lot lower than the rest of the system because of a low note, which would be an exception.) I’m happy to provide more examples, if needed.
Could you perhaps upload a picture that’s a bit bigger? I appreciate you taking the time to create an image, but you’ve uploaded such a tiny version that I can barely read it.
And while I don’t agree that pedal lines must align vertically in cases like that shown in the example, and prefer what Dorico does, it should be an option for those who do use that style.
And not everyone always starts pedal lines on the left side of note heads and ends on the right side. I sometimes center mine or start on the right or left sides depending on the situation. So I need options for that.
I agree, John, that there are different preferences. This is how I’ve done it with both Alfred and Kjos music publishers, since the '90s.
Daniel, here is a close-up showing the two situations Dorico won’t do (align a pedal lift left of the notehead also when it falls on beat 1, even at the beginning of a system). I’ll attach a PDF of the full page so you can see the overall vertical alignment. I don’t know if Tom and Linda indicated this in their book, but this is how we did it at Alfred and how Kjos Music does it, as well. Pedal Alignment.pdf (51.1 KB)
