Finale Forum

I am not a musician by any means. I have maybe three to four months of piano training when I was a kid. Now I am a senior citizen who is retired and doing some wonderful things to keep busy.

I was converting to piano but have branch out to bands and strings now concerts. Concerts seem to be in a group of their own. First off is the instrument line up. With band and strings they give a straight forward lineup. A list of the instruments. With concert or at lease the one that I have the list reads different than any thing that I have seen before. It has 5 reed sections with different reed instruments. Here is a picture of the instrument list..

Question: Why so many Reed list. In the score It doesn't use the reed list. In fact the first part Reads.

Reed IV Flute
Reed II Bb Clarinet
Reed III Bb Clarinet
Reed I Alto Sax

So what is the purpose of the reed list. Why are the same instruments listed in the deferent list?

Your picture didn't get uploaded into your post. If you can figure that out, then we can see what it is you are seeing.

Zuill

Is this better?

Sorry it keeps coming through upside down. I have tried several ways. Well I guess I'll be busy.

OK I don't know what to do now. I have gone in and rotated to the left, right, upside down and flip. But it always shows up either Upside down or laying on its side. Sorry.

Those 4 players are doubling. Each will be, throughout the piece, changing to all the instruments listed for that player. There will be duplications between the players because there are times when another player can't do that instrument, or there might be a chorus of all 4 playing the same, or similar, instruments.

Maybe I don't understand the question.

Zuill

That makes sense to me. I think you know more than you think.

is that from a show/musical?

if so, it's standard to have a minimal number of each instrumentalist in the pit, so instead of hiring a flautist, an oboist, a clarinetist, they will instead hire a musician who can play multiple instruments.

I can't see the image you posted, it's too small, but think of all the instruments in the list. It would require hiring multiple flautists, multiple clarinetists, oboists, sax players, bassoonists, etc... But hiring players who perform on multiple instruments lets them orchestrate in such a manner that they can have a single instrument, or pairs, or 3 or even 4 or more (depending on how many "reed" parts there are).

If you are orchestrating for a classical orchestra, do NOT take this approach. It is unique to musicals.
When writing for orchestra, you must keep only auxiliary instruments that are within the same family: for example flute can play piccolo, alto flute, bass flute. Period. Nothing else. Do not ask a flautist to also play an oboe, or clarinet, etc...

Yes it is from the West Side Story. As I stated I like to enter scores into Finale for fun and relaxation. I have limited knowledge in music and must therefor ask others for help. Help the I really apricate.

I erased my West Side Story guess because I didn't realize it used three piccolos, though I have played it (horn). As Michel says, it calls for a special kind of musician that can play all those instruments.

The way to do it is to give each "Reed" only one staff and switch instruments mid-stream as appropriate. In Finale there's a "Change Instrument" feature you can use.

OK That explains why I see on the staff for Reed I Piccolo Read To Alto Saxophone or on the staff for Eb Clarinet read to Bb Clarinet. Thank you for that information. I looked up the change instrument feature. I am still amaze as to how powerful Finale really is. The way the score is written I don't know if I'll need to use it. Right now I am going to try my hand at setting the percussion staff to match what is written in the score. And find something that I can use in place of finger snaps as I know that it is not in Finale,