I’ve discovered a strange behavior related to hammer-ons and pull-offs using the popover in Dorico Pro 5 (version 5.1.51.2153).
Please take a look at the following video.
You can see that in the phrase starting with an eighth note on A, the hammer-on/pull-off is only applied to some of the notes.
If you input hammer-ons and pull-offs without using the popover, you can avoid this issue. You can simply input a slur between the two notes, then select the second note and choose the guitar technique “hammer-on” from the lower zone.
I’m a beginner with Dorico, so I apologize if I’m saying something strange. I really appreciate this forum where the developers actively provide answers.
Hello @samurai_wisdom and welcome back!
I don’t know the detailed technical part of it, but it seems a behaviour related to how Dorico interprets fingerings on the guitar. For example, since A is on the 3rd string and B is on the 2nd, you could not perform an Hammer on. But if you assign the string you are playing, you can actually perform the hammer on. I’ll post here a screenshot with a tab. In the first bar, I could not add the hammer on, but I could in the second one.
I forgot to mention: if you don’t want to use the tab and don’t want the string symbol on the sheet music, you can assign a string using the properties (Ctrl/Cmd-8) → Notes and rests - > String
Based on the information you provided, I tried inputting hammer-ons and pull-offs via popover while displaying the TAB alongside the standard notation, and I figured out why this behavior occurs.
As you suggested in your image, it seems that hammer-ons and pull-offs input via popover can only be applied to passages that are playable on a real guitar. (I am a guitarist myself, so I know that hammer-ons and pull-offs are only possible when playing consecutive notes on the same string.)
When only the standard notation is displayed, it’s not possible to see the corresponding TAB notation. Since a guitar can play the same note in multiple positions, I didn’t realize this limitation.
It seems that the input via popover is based on the TAB notation, while the hammer-on/pull-off markings that can be added from the lower zone (Ctrl+8) are based on the standard notation.
It would have been great if we could use the convenient popover input even when only the standard notation is displayed. Thank you for providing the information that led to solving this question.
It is possible, using the Properties panel, to change the string on which TAB shows the fingering so that hammer-ons can be notated in a way that they are playable.
