Finale Forum

After I transpose from one horn to another, it is in the wrong octave. When I try transpose from trumpet to trombone, I change it to bass clef and the notes are up in the ledger lines, keeping the original octave of the trumpet. Not to mention, the staff name is not changed to Trombone. How do I transpose and bring the notes down to the correct octave? I'm using Finale 2002 and already tried reading the help file, but couldn't find any answers. Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Select the whole staff. In the menus (In 2002, I am not sure, maybe it's in the Mass Edit menu ?), find "Transpose", and select down an octave. In recent versions, the "8" key is a shortcut for that action.
The staff name can be changed in the Staff attributes window (staff tool, double click the staff)

I don't think 2002 has an "octave down" option, only a Bb M2 or M9 one. Not only that, but it doesn't play back as a trombone sound. How can I solve this problem?

You don't mention which version of Finale you are using : "full", "Printmusic"...(please add some info to your signature).
You can transpose a staff :
- from the Staff attributes window (staff tool, doucle click on the staff)->Transposition. Octave down is available there.
Of course transposition will display if "Display in concert pitch" is NOT selected in the menus. Transposition will also be applied to an extracted part.
Note that in the same place, you can also select "set to clef" to choose the bass clef in the transposition.

- Using the "Transpose" function" on a select region of music. See my previous post.
Use the clef tool to change the clef to a bass clef.

Changing the sound is done in the Instrument list window. In the middle column, use the pop up menu to select New Instrument, and create a new, unused midi channel and a sound patch, in this case the trombone.

You know what? I just stumbled upon it accidentally while writing out a song for horns. I am using Finale 2002 Full version. The option to transpose by octave is in the Mass Edit Tool (truck icon). You were right in your first post. I was confused because I was using the Staff Tool (treble clef icon), which also has a transposition option, but you can't change the octave. I was stumped and looking in the wrong place. I am glad they fixed this minor error in the later versions of Finale.

Thank you Michelp! You really helped me a lot. This can be a reference for other 2002 users, but maybe I need to upgrade, haha. Take care.

SkaMasta097 wrote:I don't think 2002 has an "octave down" option, only a Bb M2 or M9 one.

Trombones normally use bass clef, which is never transposed, so you shouldn't need to move any notes around with the Mass Edit tool if you enter them on a bass clef staff. If you want to write the notes in transposed treble clef (as in British brass bands) then select Bb (Up M9) transposition and set it to treble clef.

I don't know about 2002, but in 2005 there is an Up Octave transposition near the bottom of the list, you have to scroll down to see it. This lowers the sounding pitch of the written notes by an octave and keeps the key sig the same as concert pitch. If you don't have this choice in 2002 you can create it yourself by entering numbers in the two boxes - enter 7 in the Interval box and 0 in the Key Alter box.