Capo Chords

[Kirsti]

Hi there

I'm using Finale 2012a. When adding capo chords to a document, Finale defaults to some really odd voicings - Gb for instance, which freaks the guitar players out, when they want to see is an F#.

Is there a way to change the equivalent display for the capo chords? (Right now, I go in, manually edit it which will let me change the capo chord to an F, then use the text tool to add a # symbol, which is an awful pain to do.)

Thanks for any help.

[Peter Thomsen]

No need to use the Text Tool.

You can force Finale to display the capo chord the way you need it.

In this example let us say that the key signature is two flats (= key of Bb major), and that the capo is at fret 3.

Let us say that the chord should sound as Am (Concert Pitch).
You enter the chord as Am.
It displays as Am.
You change the chord to a capo chord with capo at fret 3.
Now it displays as Gbm.

To make the capo chord display as F#m, enter the Am chord as G##m (G## = A).

I hope that this is clear?
If not, ask again.

[Kirsti]

THANK you, thank you, thank you!! I changed the Gm chords to F##m, which then gave me the F#m capo chord I'd been wanting. I probably would never have thought of trying that on my own, so I'm very grateful.

[welshymnal]

If the initial respondent still sees this, the resolution was not a resolution for me yet. I understand the resolution that was provided but that just gives me a chord name with a double sharp signal, Petrucci font, what looks like two colons with a little x between the four dots. The chord name does this for both concert pitch chord name and capo'd chord name.

[Peter Thomsen]

Welcome to the forum!

What you describe, sounds really odd:

:

In order to give you the best possible help I think that we need to see an actual (small) .mus sample document.

Before you can attach a .mus document in this forum, you must compress it, e. g. as a .zip file.
And the file size must not be more than max. 100 KB.

[welshymnal]

Thanks for the reply.

The double sharp symbol in the petrucci font is #220. See attached .mus file (zipped).

[Peter Thomsen]

welshymnal,

The fix is simple:

Chord Tool.
Chord menu > Simplify Spelling

By default the option "Simplify Spelling" is selected in Finale documents.
That is the reason why most Finale users will not encounter the problem you are having.
Instead most users encounter the problem Kirsti described in the first post of this thread.

I can not explain why "Simplify Spelling" has become de-selected in your document.



By The Way:

You are using Petrucci 24 as font for the chord symbol root accidentals.
That looks quite big to me at size 24 Points.
I would use size 18 Points or something like that.

[welshymnal]

Thanks. Fixed. That will help a lot. Large accidental font size was not my original but I can address that too.

[welshymnal]

I've seen a few posts regarding saving as a previous version. My example is common enough. I want to share some 2012 templates with a colleague who only has 2011. Is there a best option short of rebuilding the template from scratch in 2011? This previous versions for those with an older version is a bit vexing.

[miker]

Export your templates as XML, and 2011 will be able to import them. There may be some information lost, but most of it should be fine.

[welshymnal]

Thanks. I deleted that option out of my original draft for this post in order to get an objective reply. Am still wondering how many of the parameters will make it across the xml export/import, such as staff line and stem line thicknesses, along with several other items in the document options dialog box, but I guess there's only one way to find out...

[rusty]

Thank you so much! I have been struggling with this problem for a long time. The solution works with V25. Turning on the simplified chords was key to getting both capo and non capo chords to display correctly.