Finale Forum

Finale 26.1 Mac

I would like to place 9 notes of a scale in one measure. I would also like to differentiate the chord tones from the other notes in that scale.

An example of this can be seen in Jamey Aebersold's play-a-long books. After each lead sheet there is a section for solos. Each measure of the solo shows the chord symbol above the staff and the corresponding scale for that chord from the root to the 9th. None of the notes have stems, and the chord tones are black like a quarter note while the passing tones are white like a whole note.

Is there any way to do this in Finale? Thanks.

There are several ways. One is to use a 9/4 measure and enter quarter notes, hiding the stems. Another is to change measure attributes of a 4/4 measure to evenly distribute beats, which allows you to overfill the measure, assuming the option to not check for extra notes is activated. Another way is to create a tuplet with 9 quarters in place of 4 quarters. You can then hide the 9 and the bracket, as well as the stems.

Zuill

Set the time signature to 9/4. Enter the notes. Make a new Staff Style and under "Items to Display" uncheck Stems and Time Signatures. Apply the Staff Style. You can use Special Tools > Note Shape Tool to change the solid notehead to the open whole notehead. Add the chord symbol.

If you do this a lot, I'd suggest you make a "Chord Master" file containing all of the common scales. Make it in the key of C. You can copy the scales into other files but you'll have to transpose the scales. Use the Selection Tool drop down to show the transposition window and use chromatic transposition, not diatonic.

I didn't read carefully about black and open notes. Anyway, I think the OP can get things going one way or another. I suppose making the measure use whole notes as the unit of beat might be better if there are more of those noteheads. It all depends. Or are the open heads half head shapes?

Zuill

zuill wrote:Or are the open heads half head shapes?

They're whole notes. Half notes would work fine too.

Edit- In my example the chord tones are the clear noteheads.

Here is an example of what I am trying to accomplish. I was successful setting the time signature to 9/4, adding 9 quarter notes to the measure, and removing the stems. But I was not able to find a way to make every other note open or clear like a whole note or a half note without a stem.
I'm using Mac OS 10.13 High Sierra and Finale 26. Thanks for your help.

Scottbr1 wrote:… I was not able to find a way to make every other note open or clear like a whole note or a half note without a stem …

Special Tools Tool.
Choose the sub-tool Note Shape Tool.
Click inside the measure/staff. A handle appears on each notehead.

Drag-select the desired notehead, and hit the Return key. The dialog box Symbol Selection appears, letting you choose another font character for the notehead.

The closed notehead (used for quarters and smaller note values) is located in character slot #207.

The open notehead (used for half notes) is located in character slot #250.

The large, open notehead (used for whole notes) is located in character slot #119.

Jari's JW Change plugin makes these kind of things much easier. You can change noteheads and remove stems quickly all in one plugin.

Zuill

That worked perfectly. Thanks for taking the time to walk me through it step by step.

With Jari's plugin, all the stems would be hidden in one click. Then, for most of the measures, I'm sure, you would select the open (either half or whole shape) notehead, and choose the filter for even numbered notes. In measures not following that pattern, the plugin still simplifies things. Instead of looking for the notes by their slots, all the common choices are listed (whole, half, quarter--even diamonds and x's if needed).

Zuill