FINALE PAGE

These are simple helps and hints relating to specific assignments for the courses below.

There is also a general section for FAQ.  For more in-depth answers,

 consult the help file on your Finale program, or go to their website here.

Note:  DO NOT use Finale Workbook.  You will not be able to save or send your file.

Note:  Some headphones have volume control on the cord or earpieces.  If you can't hear, check that first!

If you have no sound only on Finale playback, make sure that nothing is checked under the Midi tool.

Theory I:  1474 FINALE TIPS

1.        To set up your composition

1. Open Finale and Follow the Setup Wizard

2. For a single melody line, choose “empty staves” on page 2 of the Wizard, choose treble or bass clef and then “Add”.

3. Continue to choose parameters through the wizard pages

2.        To enter notes and rests

1. Click on “Simple Entry” tool (button that looks like an eighth note), choose the note or rest you wish to use from the toolbar and left click on staff to place it

2. To enter a note or rest that includes a dot,  choose both the note and the dot before placing it on the staff

3. Note:  you may not have the rest buttons on your toolbars.  If not, instructions to add them are below under Misc.

3.        To make additions and corrections

1. Erase a note or rest – click on the “Eraser” button on the toolbar, place cursor on the note or rest and left click

2. Change a note’s pitch – click on the “Repitch” button (2 triangles with a whole note between) on the toolbar, left click the note and drag it up or down

3. Erase a whole measure (this will delete the measure, not just what is in it) – click the “Mass Edit” tool (dotted lined square), select the measure or measures you want to delete, and hit the delete key on the keyboard

4. Add an accidental – choose accidental sign on toolbar and left click on note

5. Add more measures – right click the “Measure Tool” button (measure with whole rest in it) and choose how many to add.

6. Change key signature – click on the “Key Signature” button (measure with 2 flats) on the toolbar, double click on the measure where you want the change, and choose your new key.

7. Change time signature – click on the “Time Signature” button(4/4 measure) on the toolbar, double click on the measure where you want the change, and choose your new meter

4.        Other stuff you may want to do

1. Play back your composition - click the green triangle on the “Playback Controls” toolbar

2. Change the size of your score for viewing – go to View Menu, scroll down to “scale view to” and check desired percentage

3. Find out how to do something else – click on the “User Manual” button (open book) on the toolbar and click on the word “Index” in the right margin.

4. Save to disk – click “Save as” under “File” on the menu, name your file and choose Drive A or Drive H as your destination.

Theory I:  Assignment #8

1. Download this short piece and print it.

2. Transcribe it into Finale and make it look EXACTLY like the page. (Don't worry if colors are different on your screen)

3. Using the text tool, put your name at the bottom of the page

4. Print a copy to turn in to be graded.  Turn it in at the beginning of the class on the due date.

5. Be aware that the penalty for making your file available to someone else is an F for both of you.

Theory I:  Composition

Get rid of extra measures at the end of the piece

1. Click the Mass Edit Tool button (dotted lined square)

2. Select empty measures to delete by left click and drag

3. Hit the delete button

Format number of measures per line

(If you are left with only 1 or 2 long measures in the last line)

1. Click the Mass Edit Tool button (dotted lined square)

2. Click in last measure of next-to-last line

3. Press the down arrow key on your computer keyboard.  That measure will drop down to the last line.  You can continue this process until your score is properly formatted.  You can also click the first measure of the last line and press the up arrow on your keyboard.  That measure will be moved up to the staff above.

Note:  Sometimes it looks also looks better if you size your staves down a bit.  You can also get more staves on a page that way.  It is a very simple process and the instructions are here.

Number measures

1. Click the Measure Tool button (measure with a whole rest)

2. Then click the word "Measure" in the toolbar at the top

3. Choose "Measure numbers" and then "Edit Regions"

4. Select the button toward the bottom which begins "Show every

5. Enter a "1" in both blanks for every measure to be numbered

Add text (not lyrics)

1. Click the Text Tool (button with the capital A)

2. Place your cursor where you want the text

3. Right click and drag to draw a text box, then let go

4. Type inside the text box.  When you are done, you can move the box to correctly position it.

Add Simple Entry Rest Palette

1. Click on "Window" on the toolbar at the top
2. Place a check by "Simple Entry Rests Palette".  Then the rests toolbar will appear from which you can select in Simple Entry.

Theory II:  Composition #2 (Four-voice A Cappella)

How to add lyrics

1. Choose the lyrics tool button (feather pen)

2. Click the word "Lyrics" on the toolbar

3. Make sure "Type into Text" is checked.

4. Click above the first note below which you wish to place lyrics

5. Type in lyrics.  Divide syllables properly.  Each time you type a hyphen (for a divided word) or hit the space bar (to go on to the next word), the cursor will advance to the next available note.  To skip a note, simply press the space bar again.

6. Word extensions (the line that designates that more than one note should be sung to a particular syllable) will be automatically inserted when you complete any section and press enter.

7. To add a second verse, click above the first note again, and press the down arrow key.

How to adjust lyrics

1. To the left of the page, there will be a rectangular box containing 4 arrows.  Lyrics can be adjusted by placing your cursor on one of the arrows and dragging it up or down.  This sets the baseline as follows:

   The first arrow (furthest to the left) moves all of the lyrics in the piece (globally).

   The second arrow (second from left) moves only the lyrics in that staff throughout the piece.

   The third arrow moves only the lyrics in one staff in one system.

   The last arrow moves just one syllable.  Drag it to set the baseline for the next syllable, before it's entered.

2. If you do not have room between 2 staves (if you are not using open score)

   a.  click the staff tool (treble clef sign)

   b.  click the word "Staff" on the toolbar

   c.  Choose "Respace Staves"

   d.  Change 100% to a larger number (for example, 110%) to widen the space

How to flip stems

1. To flip all stems on one staff in one layer

2. To flip one stem, use Speedy Entry, place the cursor on the note and hit "L"

How to apply harmonic analysis (Roman numerals)

1. Choose the Lyric tool (the feather), not the Text tool (the capital 'A')

2. Click above the note below which you want the Roman numeral to appear (in the bass clef of the piano reduction)

3. Proceed as with lyrics (pressing tab to skip past notes)

4. To take the word extensions out, click "Lyrics" and then "Edit extensions."

5. Click in the box attached to the word extension and press the "Delete" key.

How to make a piano reduction of an open score

1. Click "Plug-ins" on the toolbar

2. From the drop down menu, choose "Scoring and arranging"

3. Choose "Piano reduction"

4. Choose the staves to consolidate in the pop-up menu (hold down 'Control' to choose several)

5. Click OK

How to make an open score of a piano reduction

1. Choose the Mass Edit tool (dotted lined square)

2. Click "Utilities" from the Mass Edit menu

3. Click "Explode Music"

4. Make any changes to the default values in the pop-up window.

5. Click OK

Theory IV:  Theme and Variations Composition

How to start each variation on a new line

1. Choose the measure button (measure containing whole rest)

2. Double click in the last measure of the section you just finished

3. Choose a double barline (not the final kind)

4. Click "ok"

5. Double click the next (blank) measure after the double barline

6. Under "Options", check "Begin a New Staff System"

7. Click "ok"

20th Century Theory:  Debussy Composition

(I will post more info on this later)

How to write  meterless music

DME:  Orff Assignment

How to save a Finale excerpt as a graphics file

1. In Finale, make sure you are in "Page View" under the "View" menu

2. Under "Tools", choose "Advanced Tools" and check "Graphics"

3. Double-click and drag to enclose the musical excerpt you wish to export

4. Under "Graphics", choose "Export Selection"

5. In the window that appears, choose "TIFF" as the type and "300" as the resolution

6. Click "ok"

7. In the next window that appears, give your file a name and save it in whatever folder is convenient

How to insert a Finale score into a Word document

1. In your Word document, choose "Insert" from the toolbar, then "Picture" and click on "From file"

2. Navigate to the folder where you placed your Finale excerpt (now a TIFF file) and double-click on that icon.

3. The musical excerpt should appear in your Word document.  Drag it, format it, crop it, etc. as you would any graphic file.  If you need more help with this, let me know.

How to make more scores fit on a page

1. Click the "Resize" tool (looks like a percent sign)

2. Click somewhere on your page

3. Choose the percent to which you would like to reduce your original page.  For example, if you choose 80, your page will be 80% as large as it was originally and more music will fit on the page.  The margins will remain the same.

How to change the name of the instrument on your score

1. Click the "Staff" tool (the Treble Clef sign)

2. Double click on the staff you wish to rename

3. On the "Staff Attributes" menu, click the "Edit" button to the right of "Full Staff Name"

4. Rename the staff and click "OK"

DME:  CC Composition

How to use the Lyric Tool to add words to your song

1. Click the "Lyrics" tool (looks like a quill pen)

2. Place the arrow that appears above the first note under which you wish a word to appear.

3. Click and a blinking cursor will appear under that note.

4. Type your lyrics.  Each time you space between words, the cursor will move to the next note.  Remember to divide your syllables.  (When you type a dash to divide a word, the cursor will move to the next note just as it does with a space.)

5. If you make an error, just click the arrow above the note where you wish to make the change.

How to make more staves fit onto the page

1. First of all, make sure that you have the correct number of measures per line.  In other words, maybe you could add more measures per line without crowding.  If you wish to do this, you can move measures up or down a line.  Here are the instructions.

2. After you have nice concise formatting, you can make all of the staves a little smaller so that more will fit on your page.  Go here for instructions.

How to number every measure

I require this so it will be easier to analyze your score in class.  Here are the instructions.

 

Miscellaneous

Flip all stems to one direction

1. Click the Mass Edit Tool button (dotted lined square)

2. Select section intended

3. Under Mass Edit Menu on toolbar, click Utilities

4. Choose "Freeze Stems Up" (or Down)

Hide stuff

1. Measure numbers:  Measure tool - Measure numbers - Edit region - then make changes there

2. Time signature:  Measure tool - Click barline handle of measure of time signature - Choose "Always Hide"

3. Barlines:  (one at a time) Measure tool - double click top square on barline - Choose "Invisible barline"

Figured bass

1. Type the numbers with the top number followed by the bottom number. 

2. Make the top number superscript and the bottom subscript. 

3. Select the top number, then under Format, choose Font. 

4. In the dialog box click the "Character Spacing" tab and set the spacing to Condensed by 4 pts.  Depending upon the font and the size, you may have to adjust that number

Beam notes

1. Click on Speedy Entry tool

2. Click on last note of desired beam

3. Press slash key (/)

Spot check listening

1. With cursor hovering over the chord (or note) you wish to hear,

2. Press the spacebar and Ctrl key at the same time (you should see a picture of an ear)

3. Move the cursor to any spot and listen

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. Do I have to use Finale?  Yes
2. I can't save the file I've been working on at home.  What am I doing wrong?  If you are using the "Finale Workbook,"  it doesn't allow you to save it.  Do not begin an assignment on Finale Workbook.  Download Finale Notepad instead.  It is a free (although stripped-down version) of Finale.  You can use Notepad at home, save your file, and then bring it to the computer lab and open it with the full version of Finale to add any features that you don't have access to with Notepad.
3. When is the computer lab open at school?  The Piano lab is open from 8am - 6pm Monday through Thursday and from 8am - 5pm on Friday.  When an instructor assigns a project, he or she can arrange in advance for extended hours.
4. Can I use a different version of Finale?  You can use any version of Finale that is older than the one we use in the Piano lab (currently 2006).  Any version of Finale or Finale Notepad that is a later version will not open at school.  Therefore, we cannot open it in class to play it and I cannot open it in my office to grade it.

Created and maintained by VB