Changing the appearance of natural harmonics

By default, natural harmonics appear as normal noteheads with a circle shown above, which indicates the desired sounding pitch. You can change the appearance of natural harmonics individually; for example, to show them as a white diamond notehead to indicate the touched pitch.

Note

These steps only apply to harmonics with the Natural type.

Prerequisite

  • The lower zone is shown.

  • Properties is selected in the lower zone toolbar.

  • If you are in Engrave mode, Graphic Editing Graphic Editing button is selected in the Engrave toolbox.

Procedure

  1. Select the natural harmonics whose appearance you want to change. You can do this in Write mode and Engrave mode.
  2. In the Properties panel, activate Style in the Harmonics group.
  3. Select one of the following options from the menu:

    • Circle above

    • Diamond notehead

    • White diamond notehead

Result

The appearance of the selected natural harmonics is changed, including on fretted instrument notation staves. The touched pitch shown on tablature is not changed automatically.

Note

  • Changing the appearance of natural harmonics does not automatically change their notated pitch. For example, if you want to change a sounding pitch Circle above harmonic to a touched pitch White diamond notehead harmonic, you must also change the pitch of the note.

  • Dorico Pro automatically assigns natural harmonics with the White diamond notehead style to the lowest possible string for that harmonic. You can specify different strings if necessary.

  • You can change the staff-relative placement of harmonic circle symbols by activating Placement in the Harmonics group of the Properties panel and choosing the option you want.