Inputting a tie

There is a tie that joins two notes on the bottom staff across the barline between bars 14 and 15. In these steps you will input that tie.

Procedure

  1. In bar 14, select the quarter note (crotchet) rest on beat 3 on the bottom staff.
  2. Press Shift-N to start note input.
  3. If chord input is not already active, press Q to start chord input.

    Caret active on the bottom staff in chord input

  4. Press 7 to select half notes (minims).
    • We do mean half notes, despite the caret being at the last quarter note in the bar.

  5. Press D to input a half note D.

    The half note D♭ automatically appears as two tied quarter notes

    • Ta-dah! The half note D automatically appears as two tied quarter notes.

  6. Press Ctrl/Cmd-Alt/Opt-Up Arrow to transpose it up an octave.

    D♭ transposed up an octave

  7. Press 6 to select quarter notes (crotchets).
  8. Press F, then Space to advance the caret.
  9. Press - to select a flat accidental, then F to input an F.

    Notes input above the tied note

  10. Press Esc or Return to stop note input.

Result

You have input a half note (minim) that is displayed as two tied quarter notes (crotchets). Dorico treats it as a single note, meaning if you click either notehead, both are selected.

Tip

In Dorico, in most cases you don’t need to input ties: simply select the total duration of the note, and Dorico splits it up into tied notes as appropriate for the time signature and its position in the bar. This applies to beam grouping as well as note grouping. If you do need to tie notes together manually, the key command is T; to remove ties, the key command is U.

After Completing This Task

You can input the rest of the notes on the bottom staff up to the end of bar 18. We recommend inputting the E at the end of bar 15 as a D; you will learn how to respell notes in a later task.