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Piano Fingering Numbers

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 11:27 am
by djlangen
I hope someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong.
I'm entering finger numbers in a piano piece and it works fine when the numbering is above the staff, but when the numbers are below the staff, the numbers are inverted. For example, if I enter middle C and E, and enter fingering 1 & 3, Finale places the 1 above the 3. It should place the 3 over the 1. (Middle C is played with the thumb!)

How do I enter fingering numbers below the staff in the correct order? Thanks in advance.

~I'm using Finale 26.1 and WIndows 10.

Re: Piano Fingering Numbers

Posted: Tue Jun 11, 2019 12:21 pm
by Peter Thomsen
djlangen wrote:… ~I'm using Finale 26.1 and WIndows 10.
Your forum profile still says Finale 2014.5 - perhaps you should update the info.

Regarding your problem:

a) In what Finale tool were the fingering numbers created?

b) And more important: What are the positioning settings for the fingering numbers? Could you perhaps attach a screen shot?
I suspect that the culprit can be found in the settings.

One possible solution would be “compound” number stacks so that e. g. the stack
3
1
is one item (not two items).

You could create a such stack in the Shape Designer, and then attach the shape as a shape expression, or as a shape articulation.

Re: Piano Fingering Numbers

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:15 pm
by Djard
I created custom numbers for fingering in the Articulation Tool that get fixed to specific notes. These pretty much stay in place to where they are dragged, using the Selection Tool. This option works better than when created in the Expression Tool, which numbers tend to drift about in the staff. To make the custom numbers available in the next document, I saved the Library File, firstly deleting all default items in Articulations, Expression and Custom Lines; so that they do not get duplicated whenever loading the library file into a new document.

Re: Piano Fingering Numbers

Posted: Fri Mar 26, 2021 9:44 pm
by motet
I guess this is the new articulation stacking? I don't have the new version, but is there something which Finale uses to specify what order things are stacked in? Or does it go by what you apply first?

Re: Piano Fingering Numbers

Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 5:11 am
by Michel R E
Finale 26 stacks articulations according to the order they are in, in the articulation tool.

If you want to have fingerings both above and below the staff you will have to create two sets of articulations.

For those above the staff, place them in descending order (5, 4, 3, 2, 1).
For those below the staff, place them in ascending order (1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

Re: Piano Fingering Numbers

Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 4:51 pm
by motet
Thanks for clearing that up.

Seems like an unfortunate design. Applying them in the order you want (from the note outwards, say) would have been both more intuitive and would have eliminated the need for such duplicates.

Re: Piano Fingering Numbers

Posted: Sat Mar 27, 2021 5:03 pm
by zuill
I'm wondering why this question is in the SmartMusic forum. It seems more like a general Finale qestion.

Anyway, since the traditional positioning of Fingering is Above for the RH staff and Below for the LH staff, the fingering paradigm as-is works fine. The only reason one would need to have them in a different order would be if one had RH Below the staff and LH above the staff, which, in my opinion, is rare. In that case, either create duplicates as has been suggested, or Right Click the handle and uncheck the Stack option.

Zuill

P.S.: The second attachment shows what can be done when unchecking the Stack option on one of the articulations.

Re: Piano Fingering Numbers

Posted: Fri Jul 09, 2021 6:15 pm
by Emeline
I've been struggling with this same issue which is how I arrived at this post.

I just noticed that when opening the articulation toolbox, "The order of stacking articulations is based on position in this list."

So, I've concluded it is just bad design, and we are stuck rearranging the order of fingerings by hand each time we enter in a fingering. Please let me know if I am wrong in this.