LIVE, ONLINE COURSE

Finale to Dorico:
FUNDAMENTALS

Your music matters. Roll up your sleeves and join John Hinchey for a series of project-oriented, interactive workshops covering best practices for transitioning to Dorico. Join us and transform your approach to learning music notation.

September 15
SESSION 1 BEGINS
2 PM CENTRAL

  

INTERACTIVE LEARNING

4 Live Intensives in 4 Weeks

Experience a dynamic learning environment where you can apply your knowledge in real-time. Say goodbye to abstract lessons and hello to practical projects that enhance your skills!

EXPERT GUIDANCE

A Seasoned Pro

Benefit from the insights of John Hinchey, a seasoned arranger, orchestrator and instructor, who will guide you through every step of the Dorico journey, ensuring you master the ins and out of Dorico.

CREATE

Dedicated Slack Channel

Work on your projects alongside fellow professional musicians, sharing ideas, questions and feedback in the dedicated Slack channel as you develop your Dorico chops. Transform your approach to music notation!

Claim Your Spot

September 15
SESSION 1 BEGINS
2 PM CENTRAL

  

Pre-Sale Cost:

Pre-Sale ends September 11 at 3:00 PM Eastern

$299 $149

8+ hours of high-quality, live online instruction

12-month access to all recordings and materials

Weekly Q&A sessions

Do it together with expert-led guidance

Go from blank project to a fully completed score

John Hinchey at Sweetwater Studios

Meet Your Instructor

I’m John Hinchey, your instructor. Aside from being a professional musician, composer and arranger, over the past 25 years I’ve been a beta tester for both Dorico and Sibelius. I’ve created a multitude of tutorials and have consulted with professional musicians one-on-one regarding best practices for using music notation software. I’ve led multiple Sibelius and Dorico webinars for ASMAC (American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers) and have a Sibelius video training available on Notation Central.

Now it’s your turn!

Course Overview

Course Objective:

Create Beautiful Scores with Confidence

In this engaging course, you won’t just learn the basics of Dorico music notation software — you’ll dive right into the exciting process of notating an actual score! Whether you’re working with vocals, a rhythm section, or a small horn ensemble, you’ll gain hands-on experience that makes learning fun and effective.

Week One…

Beginnings

We start with an introduction to the Dorico interface, Finale to Dorico equivalents, similarities and differences, and an introduction to Dorico concepts.

Week Two…

Tools and Features

Week Two will focus, among other things, on vocal and instrumental staves, lines and symbols (where are they, anyway?), workflow tips for notation and orchestration, cueing, chord symbols and parts, slash notation, Lower Zone, and more. Get ready!

Week Three…

Formatting

We’ll get serious about score and part layout: document setup in layout options, the engrave workspace, understanding frames, working with text tokens, editing in Write vs. Engrave mode, and page templates.

Let’s not forget about all of the Library menu features too: engraving options, layout options, notation options, note input options, an introduction to the Library Manager… and more!

Week Four…

Putting It All Together

In the final session, we’ll get more deeply into the Play Workspace with playback templates, third-party virtual instruments, mixing sound libraries, mixer tips and inserts, key editor for playback and tweaking, and audio demo export.

The Print Workspace is also vital to understand, so you’ll learn about real-world output, printing to printer, PDF export, file organization workflow and footer setup so your score aptly reflects your professionalism and talent.

Claim Your Spot

September 15
SESSION 1 BEGINS
2 PM CENTRAL

  

Pre-Sale Cost:

PPre-Sale ends September 11 at 3:00 PM Eastern

$299 $149

8+ hours of high-quality, live online instruction

12-month access to all recordings and materials

Weekly Q&A sessions

Do it together with expert-led guidance

Prep exercises to ensure you are ready to go

Frequently Asked Questions

No, this course will help anyone coming from any music notation software or those who have not used any music notation software at all.

Composers, arrangers, copyists, educators who create arrangements for gigs, recording sessions, show choirs, cruise ships, praise and worship ensembles, school ensembles and anyone who writes ‘charts.’

Yes, I assume that participants know music notation basics and terminology.

Each week, for four weeks, we will meet for a two-hour session. I will take you through what is on the agenda for the day and you will apply what you have learned to an actual score that I will provide for you.

This course covers the fundamentals of transitioning from Finale and learning to create a workflow in Dorico.

The course is a total of 8 hours, two hours per session, for four sessions.

Each session lasts for two hours.

Dorico Pro 5, Mac or PC, MIDI keyboard is optional but recommended and Zoom Workspace software.

The concepts learned creating this score can easily be transferred to arranging for strings, woodwinds and small chamber ensembles. Advanced concepts specific to scoring for larger ensembles such as symphony orchestra, wind ensembles, marching bands, big bands, etc. are topics I will cover in a future course if I find there is demand for that. But this course will be a great foundation to concepts needed for all ensembles.

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