Dorico resources

Zoom Classes

Intro to Dorico, February 15, 2025 – Class recording | text of chat
Intro to Dorico, January 10, 2025 – Class recording | text of chat

I’m available for individual sessions over Zoom – See the services page for pricing.

Dorico Templates for Barbershop

Google Drive folder with templates for all voicings (SSAA, TTBB, SATB), along with PDF files for blank staff paper, for both Dorico 5 and Dorico 6. Free to download and share.

Dorico Q&A

Answers to questions I’ve been asked using Dorico for barbershop. Got a Dorico question? Contact me!

• 4 bars on each system – DON’T do it manually!
• Add colors to notes – If you prefer to have each part be a different color, there’s a way to do it.
• Add information to your page template – If there’s a piece of boilerplate that you’d like to have in all your projects, here’s how to do it (Pro only – it involves editing page templates)
• Blank staff paper – The Google Drive includes PDF files of blank staff paper in letter and A4 size, along with the Dorico files used to create them. This document will show you how they were done.
• Brackets for enharmonic notes – How to add them; how to use the Properties Panel to modify them
• Comments – Dorico has a very cool comments feature. It’s available in all versions and here’s how it works
• Control the display of part names – Full names, short names, or none – here’s how to set it up.
• Delete extra flows – done in Setup Mode
• Edit the display of part names. When importing from XML, part names next to the staves can appear incorrectly. Here’s how to fix it.
• Inputting rests – For the rare times when you have to actually put them in!
• Intervals of a 2nd – how to make the higher note always go to the left. A pain in Finale but easy in Dorico!
• Lyrics popover in version 6 – New and much improved!
• Melody transfer lines
• Move a bar to the next or previous system – For occasional use – see “How to put 4 bars on each system” for how to put the same number of bars on every system.
• Note entry – How to make notes go up or down.
• Open Dorico Pro as if it were SE or Elements – yes, it can be done!
• Pickup bars – How to create them, how to change their length, how to turn a pickup bar into a regular one.
• Pitches and octave transposition – Dorico handles them differently from Finale
• Points, and Rastral Sizes – what are they? – Here’s the answer, from the Scoring Notes blog.
• Rehearsal letters – How to add them and change their appearance
• Section text – How to create (and change the appearance of) text like Intro, Verse, Chorus, Tag.
• Spaces as a unit of measurement? Yes indeed! Dorico uses spaces as a measurement for many things. Find out more, from the Scoring Notes blog.
• Swing symbol and swing playback – Swing symbol doesn’t come with Dorico but can be done with third party fonts. This will show you how.
• Tempo marks – and how to use the Properties Panel to refine how they look.
• Transposition dialog – Powerful but not always straightforward.
• X for tenor below lead – It doesn’t come with Dorico. Here’s how to create it and add it to your score.

Online Help from Steinberg

• Dorico website
• Dorico online manual
• Dorico Blog, Resources Page. Includes Quick Reference Cards with handy summaries of key commands, available in English, German, Japanese, and Portuguese.
• Dorico Forum – Actively monitored by the Dorico team. A good place to ask questions.
• Dorico YouTube Channel
  • Finale to Dorico: Conquering the Transition – Series of videos by Jason Loffredo. These are also available on his Conquering Finale site.
  • Getting Started With Dorico SE – Doesn’t cover Engrave Mode, because that’s not included in SE. However, it’s a good overview of the other modes and of Dorico in general.
  • Note Imput Tutorials – see also: Getting Started With Note Input – PDF file with a guided tutorial for users new to Dorico.
  • Intro to Popovers – Popovers are a way to enter key signatures, clefs, bar lines, dynamics, and many other musical elements using easy to remember keystrokes. Some popovers are available in all versions; others are limited to Elements and/or Pro. Here’s a complete list of popovers for Version 5 and Version 6.
  • The Jump Bar – Lets you quickly search for commands and create your own shortcuts (known as Jump Bar Aliases) to commands you use frequently. The Jump Bar is available in all versions; commands that can be accessed will depend on what version you have. Jump Bar has been expanded in Version 6.
  • The Library Manager (Pro only) – Lets you apply settings from one project to another – either Dorico’s factory defaults or settings from a project you select. If you’re importing XML files into Dorico, the Library Manager can save a lot of time in turning them into polished Dorico projects.
• List of tokens – Version 5 | Version 6. Tokens are used in editing page templates (Pro only). If you have Pro, get familiar with this list, as it includes much more than basic project information.
• Daniel Spreadbury, Translating Finale Projects to Dorico Using MusicXML – Dorico blog, September 11, 2024