Small popover improvement for guitar fingering

Dorico
#1

Entering classical guitar fingering is an absolute breeze in Dorico 3, and the default positioning is nearly always great. Thank you SO MUCH for the care and attention to detail that’s clearly gone into this feature.

I have one small proposal for speeding up entry even more. Barre markings are very frequent in fingered classical guitar music, and the way one has to enter them is currently a bit laborious:

  1. select the note or passage to be covered by the barre marking
  2. Shift-P to invoke the playing techniques popover (took me a while to get out of the habit of attempting Shift-F, but now I see why)
  3. type “full barre”, press Enter twice (once to dismiss the tip, again to dismiss the popover)
  4. go to the properties panel and switch on ‘Alternative text’
  5. type the Roman numeral required and press Enter

Step 3 would be quicker if it was possible to type an abbreviation (“fb” or “hb” perhaps), but steps 3-5 could be made even easier and more intuitive if it was possible to type the actual barre notation into the popover. For instance, if I typed CIV I would get a CIV barre, without having to faff with the properties panel every time. Perhaps 1/2CIV would give me the half barre? And C4 would give the Arabic numeral rather than the Latin one, which one sometimes sees.

Just a small proposal for future consideration, to improve the guitar fingering feature set even more.

#2

We anticipate adding a dedicated feature for barre indicators and indeed for string indicators that indicate duration in a future version, but I’m afraid it’s not imminent.

#3

Lovely. Of course I don’t think it should be anything like top priority, since the present implementation produces decent results anyway. Thanks!

#4

Regarding your point #3, you can edit the popover text in the edit playing technique dialog
https://steinberg.help/dorico_pro/v3/en/dorico/topics/notation_reference/notation_reference_playing_techniques_edit_playing_techniques_dialog_r.html?hl=edit%2Cplaying%2Ctechnique%2Cdialog
Thougt with the default settings you just need to invoque the playing techniques popover, start writing and select from the options shown under the popover. For example, for Full Barré you just have to write “fu” + the down arrow key and press enter. Now, if you change the text popover to “fb” you’ll have to write “fb” and then press enter twice, so there would be no difference in the number of key strokes. In the case of Half Barré you could save one key stroke if you change the popover text to “hb”.

#5

If you would like me as customer, please make guitar notation a priority. I’d like barre indications that show the fret and can be formatted with or without “C,” with roman or arabic numerals and that duration can be specified for. I’d like circled string numbers that are the same size, whether they are positioned above, below, or to the side of the notes. I’d like transposing chord grids where you can easily specify finger numbers, and where it just puts the fret number without “fr.” Guitar notation can be very complex. Dorico 3 made enormous strides. But you ain’t done.

#6

I’m sure the veiled threat approach always produces the optimum result. :laughing:

#7

Little tip, in engraving options (Engrave > Engraving Options) under Chord Diagrams, in Fret Numbers you can specify the prefix for the number (i.e. if you delete the fr. prefix that is there by default, you can have just the fret number).

#8

Yes, indeed, the duration of a barre is typically indicated by a line with a hook. Dorico doesn’t have a dedicated feature for these kinds of indicators, but you can create something that will fit the bill appearance-wise using playing techniques with continuation lines.

#9

Meh, guitar players are at best third scariest. (and I am one) Heard a songwriter famous enough to be interviewed once who was asked, “So I understand you’re actually a drummer.” And his response was “Yes - recovering”. Then there are trumpet players… :slight_smile: