Dorico Tutorials

Creating Dorico Templates for Musical Theater

Designing effective Dorico templates for musical theater involves customizing layouts and metadata to streamline the creation of scores and parts. These templates can include essential details like cast lists, song running order, and space for cues or dialog before the music begins. Below is a step-by-step guide to setting up your templates.

1. Setting Up Musical Theater Templates

Document Info Integration

• In the Document Info screen, add metadata such as cast lists and song running orders.
• These details will display automatically on the pages using Dorico Tokens.

Adjusting the First Music Frame

• Resize the first Music Frame to leave room for cues or dialog above the initial staff.

2. Editing Templates in Engrave Mode

Creating New Template Sets

• Use existing sets (Full Score and Parts) as a base.
• Name the new templates with clear identifiers like:
  • Show Score First
  • Show Score Default
  • Show Part First
  • Show Part Default
• ► !! Choose your new Template Set in Library>Layout Options>Page Layout>Page Template [dropdown] to have Dorico use it for new parts you might create.

Modifying the Templates

• Open a template by double-clicking it in the bottom-right panel.
• Ensure Frame Chains match (usually labeled “MA”). This setting controls music flow between frames.

3. Adding Metadata with Tokens

Layout Name and Work Number

• Double-click the left text box containing the “Lyricist” token.
• Add the Layout Name token beneath it. Use the default Paragraph Style or create a new one.
• Resize the Title box horizontally and add a Text Frame to the right of it for the Work Number.
• Insert the “Project > Work Number” token in the new Text Frame.
• With the Frame selected, use the Properties panel to give it a border to taste.

Customizing the Work Number Style

• Go to Library > Paragraph Styles and create a style named “Work Number.”
• Set the text size to 24 pt .
• Apply this style to the Work Number token.

Adding Cast Lists

• Create a Text Frame above the Music Frame for the “Other Information” token.
• Use Project Info > Other Information to populate this field.
• Apply a smaller Paragraph Style (e.g., 9 pt text) to fit the cast list neatly.

4. Piano/Vocal Template Set

• Clone the First page template for parts.
• Add a Text Frame for cast information, mirroring the Show Score First template.
• This is useful for rehearsal piano parts, as musical directors often require cast details.

5. Inserting Dialog Between Music Systems

Using Frame Chains

• Music Frames in Dorico flow content based on Frame Chains (e.g., “MA,” “MZ”).
• Shrink a Music Frame to make space, then add a Text Frame for dialog.
• Add another Music Frame below the Text Frame and link it to the same Frame Chain.

Custom Page Templates

• For frequently repeated layouts, create Custom Page Templates with predefined configurations.
• For unique cases, use Template Overrides, indicated by a red triangle in the page thumbnail.

6. Optimizing Page Layout

Manual Spacing Adjustments

• Disable Library > Page Layout > Vertical Spacing > Automatically Resolve Collisions for score and piano/vocal parts.
• Set Ideal Gaps:
  • 10 spaces between staves
  • 15 spaces between systems
• Use manual adjustments in Engrave Mode for exceptions.

7. Configuring Bass Doubling for Electric and Upright

Setup Mode Adjustments

• Add Instruments to the Bass “Player”
• Instruments will include Upright Bass (pizz) Double Bass (arco) and Electric Bass
• In Galley View, each instrument appears on a separate staff. In Page View, they share a staff. Dorico provides instrument change indications.

Instrument Change Markings

• Edit the instrument’s Short Name to reflect playing techniques (e.g., “pizz,” “arco”).
• This ensures clear score indications during switches.

Setup for Multiple Characters

When working with multiple characters in a musical theater score, it’s important to understand how Dorico links instruments (staves) to Endpoints. If two characters—such as a lead tenor and a chorus tenor—share the same Endpoint, renaming one will automatically rename the other. This can cause significant issues when reusing templates or differentiating characters within the same project.

To prevent this, set up each character as a separate Instrument from the start. This includes creating unique Endpoints and VST assignments for each character. Even if they are the same vocal range, like two tenors, treat them as distinct Instruments.

Here’s how:

1. Create a unique Instrument: Duplicate the base Instrument from Dorico’s Instrument list and give it a unique name that corresponds to the character.
2. Assign it to a new Player in Setup Mode.
3. Create a new Endpoint in the Play tab by duplicating the appropriate VST device.
4. Assign the new Endpoint to the newly created Instrument using Play > Routing.

Doing this ensures that character names and playback routing remain unique, even if they share voice types. It’s especially useful when building a show-specific template from a cast list.

Though this setup may seem complex, it’s essential for clarity, control, and flexibility in musical theater production workflows. Once established, your templates will remain reliable and adaptable across future projects.

Creating a Piano/Vocal Layout

Creating a new layout for piano and voice is a simple starting point. However, if multiple voices are involved, a separate staff or 2 may be needed for a reduction of the other vocal parts. While Dorico supports staff condensation, it does not work well for vocal music. Instead, the Paste Into Voice function is much more effective for creating clean S/A and T/B condensations. Treble clef voices (sopranos and altos) should be reduced onto one staff, while tenor and bass parts should go on another.

Single Staves (found in the Sketch section) should be used for this purpose. After renaming the part and staves accordingly (“S/A, T/B”) the Single Staves can be added to the piano/vocal part and possibly also used in the Full Score. The reduced vocal staves can be given a Brace in Engrave mode, looking like a Grand Staff for the chorus.

For character lines in the score, you may need a solo line (or possibly two, for duets) in addition to the choir. The lead vocal lines can be managed using either a single staff with instrument changes (e.g., switching character names mid-line) or using two separate staves, with unused staves hidden in the layout.

If you intend to export music for AI vocal processing, it is best to set up the project with one voice per staff from the beginning. You can create an XML export part that includes only the piano and all vocal lines. This XML export part should be used exclusively for export and not for printing with other parts.

Using Flows for Musical Theater

Dorico’s Flow-based structure is ideal for musical theater projects, where each number in a show may function as an independent movement. By using Flows, you can keep the entire show in one Dorico project, while managing each song or scene individually.

To make this work efficiently:

• Set up your template to include all possible instruments that might be used across the show. This avoids complications when adding new Flows later.
• For each Flow, define custom Layouts that include only the necessary instruments. This keeps individual numbers clean and performance-ready.
• You can also create a separate Score Layout for each Flow, ideal for printed scene excerpts or rehearsal scores.

Working with XML imports? If you import music into a Flow via XML, Dorico may add duplicate instruments, causing Endpoint conflicts. It may be simpler to work on one number per file in these cases and import them into a master project later (or not).

Tacet Sheets: Dorico can generate tacet pages automatically for players who do not perform in a given Flow. Ensure that the Layout includes the Player but not the Flow’s music. Dorico will display a properly formatted “Tacet” sheet, streamlining part preparation.

Using Flows allows maximum flexibility and centralized management, provided the initial template is robust and well-considered.

Tacet Sheets

Here’s the recommended method:

• Include the Player in the Layout
• Ensure that the Flow assigned to that Layout contains no music for that Player

Dorico will detect that the player is not active in that Flow and will create a Tacet page automatically. You do not need to remove the Music Frame or create a dummy template for this.

✅ Best Practice:
Avoid manual overrides like removing the Music Frame. It introduces unnecessary complexity and breaks the connection between Layout and Flow logic, which is Dorico’s real power.

You could use a custom page template without a Music Frame, but that’s generally more useful for title pages or specialty inserts—not for tacets.

What if you’re not using Flows? 

If you’re working from imported XML files or choosing to do one number per project without leveraging Flows, you can still create tacet sheets manually for players who don’t perform in that number.

Here’s how:

• Include the player in the Layout.
• If there’s no music assigned to that player, Dorico won’t automatically generate a tacet page since there’s no Flow logic to support it.
• In this case, the most effective workaround is to manually create a custom Page Template with a text frame containing “TACET” in large type.
• Apply this page template as an override to that Layout.

This gives you the visual result of a tacet sheet without needing to restructure the entire project around Flows. It’s a practical approach for isolated numbers created outside the Flow-based workflow. Avoid removing Music Frames or creating blank templates—these can interfere with Dorico’s automation. Relying on the built-in tacet logic keeps your project clean and layout behavior consistent.

Using Flows allows maximum flexibility and centralized management, provided the initial template is robust and well-considered.

Save your Templates into a Project Template

• When you’re done, save your file as a Project Template so it appears in Dorico’s Hub (starter screen).
• Assign it to a new category – “Show.”

By following these steps, you can create professional, functional Dorico templates tailored to the needs of musical theater productions. These templates save time and improve workflow consistency, ensuring your scores are both practical and visually appealing.