Dorico Tutorials — Episode 0 (EN)

Introduction

Hello everyone and welcome to this new series of lessons, this time dedicated to Dorico, the revolutionary notation software by Steinberg. Please bear with me while I introduce this series because there is something special about it.

Why am I doing this?

In my long journey through music notation, started back in the early 2000s, I had the chance to encounter incredible people whose selflessness and generosity will echo in my memory forever. One of these was Robert Puff, a clarinetist, arranger, copyist, teacher, mentor, but most of all… a friend. His posts on his OF NOTE blog proved invaluable in my early training days, as was his feedback in my professional development. He sadly passed away two years ago (2022), and he will be sorely missed.

We talked at length about Dorico when it was still just an idea on the Steinberg blog, and we tested its first version extensively from the day it was released, back in 2016. Between 2018 and 2021, Robert dutifully transcribed many of the excellent video tutorials Anthony Hughes created, shaping them into blog posts. When I reached out to Anthony to propose that I bear the task (and the responsibility) of bringing forward what Robert started and could not finish, he wholeheartedly accepted.

Every Dorico tutorial I write will thus henceforth be dedicated to the memory of Robert Puff. I hope I will be up to the challenge.

What will make this different?

Robert’s posts were mostly a literal transcription of Anthony’s video, enriched, though, with precious and detailed screenshots. To avoid duplication, and to offer something unique, I am adding two sides to this brilliant prism:

1. ITALIAN LANGUAGE: since I’m Italian, and the Italian Dorico community is both growing and enthusiastic, I am going to offer these articles in two connected versions, in Italian and in English. Should you find mistakes in my English, please reach out and I will publicly thank you for your contribution.
2. ENRICHING: the video medium is constrained by one dreadful thing: the viewer’s attention! If you have ever looked at statistics for video watching, you will have noticed that most people prefer shorter videos. This obliges the author to take one of two paths: speak faster—not good for pedagogical content—or break the content into short, bite-sized chunks. The consequence of this is that the video will not go deep into details, and will only glance at variations. In my articles, I will start from Anthony’s videos, transcribe his content, and add expansive commentary with examples taken from both the Desktop and iPad version of Dorico. If necessary, I will also attach dedicated Dorico projects to make it easy for you to learn from practical examples.

Now, without further ado, let’s get started!

See you in Episode 1!

Bottom Line

Thank you for reading this introduction, I hope to see you again here for the first episode!

If you are interested in music notation, editorial design, and sheet music publishing, please consider joining my mailing list here, I would deeply appreciate it.

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