Two questions: 1) beaming 2) grace notes

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AnneMillington
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Post by AnneMillington » Thu Nov 04, 2021 1:53 am

In my learning curve with Finale, I am struggling with a couple of questions.

One is related to beaming. I am using the recommended way to beam my groups of notes with speedy entry and /, and it works for most but a few of my configurations are resistant. Is there a simple way to just select a group of notes, and beam them in a selected way?

The other question relates to grace notes, which are in some parts I imported, but would like to remove. I can find no way to get these notes deleted. I end up just having to re-enter the notes in that measure without the grace note.
Am I missing something obvious in either or both?


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motet
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Post by motet » Thu Nov 04, 2021 3:45 am

I know of no way of selecting a bunch of notes and saying "beam all these together," but that would be a nice feature.

There is "rebeam to time signature," which will rebeam a selection according to the rules of the time signature you provide. But I think the real question is, why aren't the notes beamed correctly as you entered them? If you can attach a picture, maybe we can help. One common mistake is when people set up 6/8, they choose the version that looks like six individual eighths rather than two dotted quarters. The latter will beam three eighths together automatically as you enter them (see below).

In terms of the / key, I've found that sometimes you have to press it twice to get it to add or remove the beam. Also try putting the cursor on an adjacent note and pressing /.

You should be able to delete grace notes like any other note by putting the cursor on them and pressing Delete. There's also a way to do it in Simple entry with the mouse. Click on the icon in the Simple Entry palette that looks like an eraser, then click the note you want to erase.
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miker
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Post by miker » Thu Nov 04, 2021 5:50 am

Sometimes it’s hard to select a grace note. Double-click on the following note to select it, then use the arrow key to back up to the grace note. Then, tap the DELETE key.
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RMK
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Post by RMK » Thu Nov 04, 2021 1:41 pm

motet wrote:
Thu Nov 04, 2021 3:45 am
I know of no way of selecting a bunch of notes and saying "beam all these together," but that would be a nice feature.
There is a plug-in by Robert Patterson that does this.

AnneMillington
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Post by AnneMillington » Thu Nov 04, 2021 3:19 pm

Thank you thank you!
I will be back at it this afternoon, armed with your suggestions.

AnneMillington
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Post by AnneMillington » Fri Nov 05, 2021 1:18 am

motet, thank you!

Using / on an adjacent note, not the last note in the group I wanted to create, actually worked! Not exactly intuitive, but it did work
Also, picking up the eraser tool made those pesky grace notes disappear, even when other more familiar methods of deleting failed. I didn't try the trick of backing up to the note to be deleted, but I have a hunch it would work as well.

So I can move on.

Regarding setting time signature, I cannot locate the dialog box you show in your attached image. I see the time signature tool in my tool bar, between key signature tool and text tool, but nothing happens when I right click or double click the icon. Is there a more correct way to access the tool? My key signature is 12/8, and it appears as though the default beaming is in groups of dotted quarters. I did not set up this document, however; it is an XML input, and as such has a lot of configuration which was not specifically selected by me.

RMK, I will check for that plug-in.

Thanks for you help.

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motet
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Post by motet » Fri Nov 05, 2021 5:38 am

After switching to the time-signature tool, double-click on the first measure.

AnneMillington
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Post by AnneMillington » Fri Nov 05, 2021 3:27 pm

And when I did open that tool, it turns out that it was set to the 12 individual eighths rather than 4 dotted quarters. Now I feel I have better control over this. Thanks.

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motet
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Post by motet » Fri Nov 05, 2021 3:48 pm

I wonder if this is a problem with XML import, since the four-dotted-quarters 12/8 is invariably what anyone would want. Do you know what program originally created the XML file?

Once you've changed the time signature to the correct one, Utilities/Rebeam/Rebeam music should fix all the beaming in one shot.

AnneMillington
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Post by AnneMillington » Fri Nov 05, 2021 4:16 pm

Yes, I created it from a pdf with ScanScore. I thought it actually imported quite well but I didn't know enough at the time to even start checking what input settings it might use.

I have fixed all the beamings manually now, but will try setting the time signature correctly on an older copy just see how it works.

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