Considering a Dorico class for National Seminar

[Paul Kinney]

I'm planning to apply to teach a class on the Dorico notation program (designated successor to Finale) for handbell composers at National Seminar. I haven't yet figured out how many sessions I'll need to cover everything that should be covered. 4 sessions seems too few, 12 seems to many.

My question is, when Martha Lynn Thompson and Jason Krug taught Finale classes at Seminar how many sessions did they have? For those that took the class was that too few or too many?

Paul Kinney
Dorico user for a year now

[Jason Krug]

Paul,

Martha Lynn's was 4 classes long, so when I took over teaching it for her, I did 4, as well.  You can't teach everything, so don't try — what you need is to give folks enough to get started and figure out what else they need to know, plus give them the tools to find the answers themselves.  I tried to cover the bare minimum they needed — how to input notes, where to find articulations, adding notes to chords, etc. — and not try to overload them with information.  I think if you make it too long or try to teach too much, folks will retain none of it.  When I reorganized the Finale classes to suit my own teaching style (the first time I taught it was as a last-minute replacement for Martha Lynn, so I taught straight from her notes), I even left the 4^th session as a sort of catch-all for either things we ran out of time to cover in other sessions, or to let students ask questions about what THEY wanted to know how to do, since that would be the most use for them.

Hope that helps!

Jason

Jason Krug

Composer, Conductor, and Clinician

Connect with me online:

jasonwkrug.com

grassymeadowmusic.com

Jason W. Krug, Composer on Facebook

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From: 'Paul Kinney' via Handbell-l <handb...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 18, 2025 4:45 PM
To: handb...@googlegroups.com <handb...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [HB-L] Considering a Dorico class for National Seminar

 

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[linda mckechnie]

Having attended several of Martha Lynn's classes, one of Jason's classes, a class led by a Dorico Specialist at Joseph Martin's composer symposium this summer,..... My head is spinning. However, I would welcome a four class session on Dorico..... At the simplest entry level and ending with a 10 measure arrangement of Mary had a little lamb!!!! I will sign up. However, Can you teach on a Mac? Linda Mckechnie.

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[Paul Kinney]

Thank you, Jason Krug, for your description of your Finale class at National Seminar. I was very much on track for overdoing it. I can do the important stuff in four sessions.

Linda McKechnie, I'm glad you're interested in my class. Alas, I don't use a Mac. However, the Dorico manual does describe commands for both Windows and Mac, though getting used to how they do it may take a bit of time.

Paul Kinney

[Michele Sharik]

Linda — I use a Mac, and if I’m able to take Paul’s class, we could sit together and figure it out! :-)

-Michèle

(I’ve owned Dorico for a year, but still haven’t tried to use it. Still using Finale. I know, I know….)

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[joy toll]

I would so love a Dorico class. I too have  purchased it and am so slow to want to learn something new - and am so bogged down in my composing because of it! Four classes sounds great! 

Joy 

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On Sep 18, 2025, at 4:45 PM, 'Paul Kinney' via Handbell-l <handb...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

 I'm planning to apply to teach a class on the Dorico notation program (designated successor to Finale) for handbell composers at National Seminar. I haven't yet figured out how many sessions I'll need to cover everything that should be covered. 4 sessions seems too few, 12 seems to many.

My question is, when Martha Lynn Thompson and Jason Krug taught Finale classes at Seminar how many sessions did they have? For those that took the class was that too few or too many?

Paul Kinney
Dorico user for a year now

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[joy toll]

And I am a Mac user too! 

Joy 

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On Sep 19, 2025, at 12:35 AM, Michele Sharik <michele...@gmail.com> wrote:

Linda — I use a Mac, and if I’m able to take Paul’s class, we could sit together and figure it out! :-)

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