User manual

Table Of Contents
Beam groups in single voices
The stem direction within beam groups is determined by the balance of notes within the beam
group that are above/below the middle line of the staff.
If the majority of notes in the beam group are above the middle line, stems in the beam
group point downwards.
If the majority of notes in the beam group are below the middle line, stems in the beam
group point upwards.
If the beam group contains an equal number of notes either side of the middle line of the
staff, the stem direction is determined by the stem directions of any adjacent notes, beam
groups, or chords. If they both have the same stem direction, the beam group matches
them. If the adjacent notes, beam groups, or chords have different stem directions, equally
balanced beam groups follow the default stem direction.
The default stem direction depends on the instrument type. By default, the stems of notes
on the middle lines of staves point downwards on instrumental staves and upwards on vocal
staves, to avoid lyrics.
RELATED LINKS
Voice column index on page 889
Implicit rests in multiple-voice contexts on page 775
Note positions in multiple-voice contexts on page 886
Changing the default stem direction of voices on page 817
Removing stem direction changes on page 817
Altered unisons on page 483
Changing the stem direction of notes
You can manually change the stem direction of any note.
PROCEDURE
1. Select the notes whose stem direction you want to change.
2. Change the stem direction in one of the following ways:
Choose Edit > Stem > Force Stem Up.
Choose Edit > Stem > Force Stem Down.
TIP
You can also choose these options from the context menu.
RESULT
The stem direction of the selected notes is changed. The selected notes follow this stem
direction, even if you later change their pitch to one that usually requires a different stem
direction.
NOTE
This does not change the voice to which notes belong.
Stems
Stem direction
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Dorico SE 3.1.10