Finale Forum

I'm trying to get this chord to fill the entirety of this 7/8 measure. Is there any way to copy the chord and paste it as an eighth note rest so it can fit in the measure? If not, is there a way to tie the first chord into a copy of it in the eighth note without having to respell it and tie every note?

Select, copy, and paste the chord. (In Simple Entry, you will have to turn off Check for Extra Notes.)

Then, select the new chord, and tap Option-numberpad 4 to turn the chord into eighth notes. That’s on a Mac. On Windows, I believe it’s Alt-4.

You could also paste the chord into an empty measure, change the duration, and paste it back into the original method.

There are menu commands to change the duration as well, but I’m so used to the shortcuts, I don’t remember the path. It’s somewhere in the Simple menu, though.

To tie the two chords together, select the first chord and tap the T key.

Remember, you can quickly enter a chord by entering the first note, and tapping the numbers of the intervals. In this case, enter the low F, and then tap 6, 2, 3, 6.

matthewknight28 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 06, 2021 1:31 am

I'm trying to get this chord to fill the entirety of this 7/8 measure …

Why not just double-dot the half note chord?

That is what I would do.

A double-dotted half equals 7/8.

Peter's double-dotted half note is a great solution, but if you are concerned that it might be too esoteric, most 7/8 meter divides into 3 + 4 or 4 + 3. So it would be more common to see a dotted quarter tied to a half note or vice versa to show this than what you have.

Double dotted notes may seem esoteric but they were invented by Leopold Mozart so they've been around for a while. In the usual cases where the double dots do not occur on a "strong" part of the measure (syncopated dots is my name) these are easier to read than a bunch of ties.

This is the same "rule" as for single dotted notes. An eighth rest followed by a double dotted half isn't easy to read but a double dotted half followed by an eighth rest is (or one could use a staccato whole note for computers; people, in my experience, don't treat staccato as just a length indicator.)

That's a good point, ttw. One is most accustomed to seeing double-dotted notes (and rests) in conjunction with a note or rest that completes it to add up to a non-dotted note value, for example, one often sees a double dotted eighth note or rest followed or preceded by a 32nd note or rest to equal a complete quarter note.

I don't think I've ever seen a double-dotted quarter note filling up a complete measure of 7/8 even though there is certainly nothing inherently wrong with it. Perhaps it is because musicians are a little less comfortable in meters like 7/8 and feel comforted to see the division into 3 +4 or 4 + 3 broken down for them.

Here is an example from Copland's Piano Sonata. Note that even though the right hand defines the grouping into 4 + 3, Copland still notates the left hand as a half-note tied to a dotted quarter note, not a double dotted half note: In any case, it is an interesting question and I am going to give the musicians over at Notat.io a crack at it.