How to beam notes in different time signatures

[msanjelpie]

I have a song with multiple time signatures because the composer wanted to have fun I guess. Who knows.

Anyway, in the song are 3/8, 4/8, 6/8 and 7/8.

I typed everything in and noticed that for some reason the measures that were 4/8, the notes did not have beams. I changed one measure to 2/4 and the beams appeared. (Picture attached.)

I have researched the issue, given up on the time signature thing, but I don't want to make those measures 2/4 just so the notes have beams. I would rather the song remain true to the original.

So, is there a place where I can click something and force the notes to beam? I have tried the Broken Beam Tool, the Beam Angle Tool, the Beam Break Tool, the Beam Extension Tool, the Rebeam Music utility, checked out the beam plug-in area and I can't find anything that would make the notes in the 4/8 measure appear as the notes in the 2/4 measure do.

[motet]

There's a utility "Rebeam to time signature..." with which you can select your 4/8 bar and and rebeam it as if it were 2/4.

The other option would be to set the time signature to 2/4 but tell Finale to display 4/8 instead. In the Time Signature tool, click cMore Options. For already-entered music, though, you'd have to use Utilities/Rebeam after making the change,

[motet]

If your 7/8 were always 3+2+2 you could do something like

[mmike]

is there a place where I can click something and force the notes to beam?

In Speedy Entry select a note and the slash (/) will join a beam to the previous note.

[miker]

is there a place where I can click something and force the notes to beam?

In Speedy Entry select a note and the slash (/) will join a beam to the previous note.

The same keystroke in Simple, to beam or break a beam.

[Peter Thomsen]

1) To see the keyboard shortcuts, look in the menus and sub-menus.

A. Simple Entry Tool.
Simple menu > Simple Edit Commands > Modify Entry > Break/Join Beam

B. Speedy Entry Tool.
Speedy menu > Speedy Edit Commands > Break/Join Beam

Next to each menu command the corresponding keyboard shortcut is displayed.


2) To get the needed beaming “automatically” - while entering notes - the safe solution is the {Time Signature Tool solution}, with {Use a Different Time Signature for Display}, as motet has shown.
Where the notes have already been entered, it may be necessary to Rebeam Music (Utilities menu).

[mmike]

Maybe in my version (WIN10 /27.2) or my keyboard (European QWERTY) it's different - in Simple Entry the slash (/) command makes/breaks a tie. The apostrophy (') makes/breaks a beam. I don't use Simple much, but I'd find it more cumbersome in Simple because it seems you have to exactly select the note (or you enter a new note by accident). In Speedy you don't have to select the note at all, just place the caret where you want to execute the command. In any case, this method is most useful and quickest if you want to change the beaming in isolated instances. If you have a whole series of measures the other suggested methods/utilities would probably be better.

[msanjelpie]

Oh, shoot. All of you replied and I didn't get any emails. I'm sorry I didn't know...

The first option above "Rebeam to Time Signature" worked perfect since the notes were already there. I just didn't know I had to change the numbers to 2/4 to make it work.

--

Just tried selecting a note and hitting the slash key and that worked great as well. (That was the easy fix I was searching for actually.) - Although the first option above worked quicker in the long run as I didn't have to do it to every unbeamed note, it did entire measures at once.

--

Further down

I clicked on the picture for 'Simple Entry Tool' and a new menu 'Simple' appeared. It wasn't there before. I love when programs try and hide options from me.

I clicked on Simple Edit Commands and Modify Entry but all of the options were grayed out. I thought perhaps I had to select the measure but then the Simple menu went away.

I started again, but this time instead of selecting the measure I just clicked on 1 note in the measure and the Simple menu came back and the grayed out options appeared like magic. I did a print screen and printed it out for later use.

In my version (Win10 /27.2) the slash (/) command makes/breaks a beam. So I think it's possibly the keyboard for mmike.

THANKS to all of you! Much appreciation!

[miker]

Maybe in my version (WIN10 /27.2) or my keyboard (European QWERTY) it's different - in Simple Entry the slash (/) command makes/breaks a tie. The apostrophy (') makes/breaks a beam. I don't use Simple much, but I'd find it more cumbersome in Simple because it seems you have to exactly select the note (or you enter a new note by accident). In Speedy you don't have to select the note at all, just place the caret where you want to execute the command. In any case, this method is most useful and quickest if you want to change the beaming in isolated instances. If you have a whole series of measures the other suggested methods/utilities would probably be better.

Yes, it's probably the European keyboard that's making the difference.

If you're mousing in the notes in Simple, there is a much better way: simply type the letter key of the note you want, A-G. The only caveat is that this enters the closest note. For example, if you are on a first space F, and want a C in the third space, entering a C will take you to the first line C, because it's closer. A little experience will have you tapping the up or down arrow once or twice, to get you in range of the note you really want.