Want forte-piano? Type CNTRL-E (CMND-E) then “fp”, again, making sure to leave the modifier key held down. Want mezzo-forte? Type CNTRL-E (or CMND-E on Mac), then with the modifier key still held down, type “mf”.

This allows us to create mezzo-piano and mezzo forte dynamics, effectively giving us the complete range of standard dynamics, from “ pppp” to “ ffff“. You may have also noticed the music text character “ m” in the Contextual Menu list (CMND-M on Mac or CNTRL-M on Windows.

Now type “p” for piano, or “f” for forte, and the dynamics will be entered with the correct font.

Release the E key, but leave the MODIFIER key (CMND or CNTRL) depressed.

Type the shortcut for Expression Text (CMND-E, Mac or CNTRL-E, Windows).

The key to successfully typing dynamics in with the “Music Character Style” font is to leave the CONTROL (or CMND) modifier held down as you type the various keys: (For Windows, pretend the “clover” symbol is your CONTROL key.) Take a look at the “piano” and “forte” symbols in particular. You may have noticed that some of the menu items already have keyboard shortcuts assigned (you can assign your own shortcuts as well). The only caveat is that it’s not particularly fast… So, how do I just type the dynamics in?… In the correct font?

The contextual menu is a great way to enter dynamics. From this list, you can easily select the dynamic you are looking for, and it will be in the correct font the “Music Text” font (“Opus Text Std” in this case). You’ll notice that the list contains a combination of regular italicized text, and “music text” text Sibelius calls a “ Character Style“. Type CNTRL-E (Windows) or CMND-E (Mac) so that the text cursor appears beneath the staff (or above it on a vocal staff), then right-click to see a list of Dynamics and Expression text: (click to enlarge) One way to enter dynamics text is by using the Contextual Menu. Let’s walk through a couple of different ways to enter these dynamic text symbols, and importantly, let’s take a look at how to fix them after the fact, using the Change Dynamics plugin in Sibelius: However, even though this font is assigned as the Music Text Font in many of the Sibelius Manuscript Papers, you may find your dynamics look like the above, rather than: There is something not quite right about this “engraved” looking bar of music, right? The Opus Text Std Music text font would look more “correct” for the dynamics. I see a lot of music that has dynamics entered in Times New Roman Italic or Times New Roman Italic Bold:

Turn words into musical note font