Playing techniques
The term “playing techniques” covers a wide range of instructions intended to tell performers to modify the sound of the notes they are playing, for example, by changing their embouchure or changing the position of their bow, or by modifying their instrument, such as adding a mute or depressing a pedal.
In Dorico Pro, playing techniques can be expressed as symbols or as text. All available playing techniques can be found in the Playing Techniques panel in Write mode, organized by instrument family. For example, you can find pedal lines in the Keyboard section of the Playing Techniques panel.
Because pedal lines have additional, unique requirements that do not apply to other playing techniques, such as retakes, start signs, and continuation lines, they are documented separately. Pedal lines also have their own group of the Properties panel that is separate from the Playing Techniques group.
Adding playing techniques can change how the instrument plays back. For example, adding pizzicato to a violin staff activates a key switch that changes the sound produced by the VST instrument.
Many playing techniques that only appear once in the music nonetheless imply that the playing technique continues. For example, pizzicato usually appears once but applies until the next playing technique, such as arco. In Dorico Pro, you can show continuation lines after and between playing techniques to convey clearly to performers the notes to which you want them to apply. You can also group multiple playing techniques together.
Playing technique texts use a plain font, neither bold nor italic, so they are not confused with dynamics and expressive text.
This does not apply to pedal lines, as they use a separate font style to other playing techniques.
