I pivoted over to Dorico last year, and have had great results. I still get a bit of use out of Sibelius[1] for specific needs, but Dorico has become my primary driver. Someone on the Facebook groups for Dorico has worked out some of the kinks to the only limitations I’m feeling with Dorico, and I’m looking forward to exploring his ideas.

What’s very exciting, though, is that Steinberg has just released a free edition of Dorico, titled “SE.” I’m very excited for my students to be able to tap into the raw power of Dorico, compared to anything else available. It’s not just that it’s great software for someone doing serious work, but its treatment of music stands to be so much less in the way of a student than anything else on the market. I remember as a student fighting with Finale NotePad, and struggling to get results that looked passably professional. Nowadays, the engraving you can find on Musescore’s web portal is straight-up gruesome. Dorico acts as a mediator for the intent, though, in a way that I feel much better setting my students up with.[2]

While the limitations are definitely significant, Dorico SE, I think, is the ideal tool to have most of my students inputting actual music they want to have printable as something to play. Whether that’s things they’re trying to share that they’ve learned by ear or something they’ve found online[3]. I’m looking ahead towards being able to produce some aids for them to learn the basics. Dorico’s guided tour feature isn’t a bad start, but the learning curve to music notation software – even when I’d argue Dorico is relatively intuitive – is still steep.