Am I doing something wrong?
I use Pitch before Duration and I want to enter two dotted minims tied together in 3/4 time over two bars. I enter the first note and then its dot, then press T, and then the 2nd note, but Dorico won’t let me add the dot to the second note. Why not? I can achieve it by entering a dotted semibreve and my two tied notes appear correctly, but it doesn’t seem to me this should be the way it should be done.
Secondly, I want a dynamic marking on the 2nd tied note with a hairpin under the first note. Dorico won’t let me, it puts the dynamic on the first note.
In both circumstances I have to delete all the notes, re-enter them without the ties, add the dot and dynamics and finally put the ties back.
Remember that Dorico treats a tied note as one complete duration. So, once you’ve tied a dotted minim to another minim, you’ve got a total note duration of 5 beats. You’re then trying to dot that 5-beat note.
In fact, entering a dotted semibreve is the quickest and easiest way. You can also just ‘extend’ the duration of the tied note with Shift Alt Right arrow. (in units of the current grid duration.)
Note that if you use Duration BEFORE Pitch (aka Pitch AFTER Duration…), you can actually enter one dotted minim; press T for tie, and the next pitch will use the same duration – e.g. a dotted minim, tied. The problem with K-mode is that you have to set the duration again.
(I’d largely suggest that the only advantage of pitch before duration in Dorico is the ability to play the keyboard before ‘confirming’ a note; otherwise, pitch after duration probably has the better functionality. I wouldn’t stick with the former just because it worked well in.. another app.)
Use the caret, Luke!
You can use the Dynamic popover at any point. If you want to add a hairpin, remember that a hairpin needs duration, so you’ll need to advance the caret (Space) to draw the length of the hairpin once you’ve entered < in the popover.
Again, an alternative is to select the entire tied note, enter “<f” in the popover, and then reduce the length of the combined dynamics with Shift Alt Left arrow.
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This got me thinking: if you set Preferences to set rhythm dots BEFORE the note duration, then you can do what you want more easily:
- Enter Note Entry
- Set your pitch.
- Press dot.
- Press 7.
- Press T
- Press dot.
- Press 7
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Thank you so much Ben. After using P before D in Finale since 1992 I have to say it’s very difficult for a 79 y.o. to get out of the habit 
, so the facility in Dorico to input notes as I did in Finale (Speedy, with the arrow keys and number pad) is such a great benefit to me. I don’t have room on my desk for a MIDI keyboard.
I became very fast with Finale, so working with Dorico seems intolerably slow to me at present. But I’m using it almost exclusively and that’s the best way to learn. I remember having many questions learning Finale in the early days too, so I’m sure I’ll get much quicker.
It is, indeed. The most adaptable software is still the one between the ears, and it doesn’t take long to ‘retrain’. (Speaking from harumph years of Finale use.)
I strongly recommend seeing if there’s room for even a little 2-octave one, like the Akai LPK-25, CME Xkey 25, or Korg Nanokey. It’s the single most effective thing you can do to speed up note entry – and that’s true whatever app you’re using.
