Finale Forum

When typesetting music from renaissance partbooks, it would be helpful if typing D, R, M, F, S, L, T, would automatically place those letters on the Do, Re, Mi etc., of whatever given key we have preset the document.

Not quite what you want, but there is a Staff Style for Alpha Notes Solfege. You could enter the notes conventionally, and apply the staff style to show the D-R-M.

Personally, I've never been able to use this to my satisfaction, because to see the letters in the noteheads, you have to enlarge the view so much.

miker wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 28, 2021 12:50 am

… to see the letters in the noteheads, you have to enlarge the view so much.

Indeed.
I suspect that the OP (= Chatt88) did not mean “letters in the noteheads”, but rather letters outside the noteheads.


Unfortunately adding the letters is a separate step; you do not get them “automatically”.

You could add those letters with the Expression Tool.
It can be done quickly if you use expression metatools.

My take on the original post was striking the letter keys on the QWERTY keyboard. The Feature request is that there would be a plugin for this, and that D would be the Do of the given key one was in. That's how I read it.

Zuill

Chatt88 wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 27, 2021 8:52 pm

When typesetting music from renaissance partbooks, it would be helpful if typing D, R, M, F, S, L, T, would automatically place those letters on the Do, Re, Mi etc., of whatever given key we have preset the document.

Zuill wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 27, 2021 8:52 pm

My take on the original post was striking the letter keys on the QWERTY keyboard. The Feature request is that there would be a plugin for this, and that D would be the Do of the given key one was in. That's how I read it …

That makes sense.

I guess we got confused by the words “… automatically place those letters …”.

If I understand the request correctly, then the request is a special “relative to the key signature” {note entry mode} that automatically translates key presses on the letter keys D, R, M, F, S, L, T to (relative) notes in the key signature.

So that if the key signature is 1 flat, then
pressing the letter D key will enter an F note,
pressing the letter R key will enter a G note.
pressing the letter M key will enter an A note.
&c.

If - On The Other Hand - the key signature is 1 sharp, then
pressing the letter D key will enter a G note,
pressing the letter R key will enter an A note.
pressing the letter M key will enter a B note.
&c.

While I understand the idea, I can imagine that it will take some time, before you get used to that way of thinking during note entry.
We are so used to thinking in absolute note names, so that we hit G to enter a G, hit A to enter an A, &c.

Perhaps the request would make better sense if we knew, what the layout in those “renaissance partbooks” looks like.
I suspect that the layout is some sort of solfège notation, rather than “standard practice notation”.

I think both Speedy and Simple let you reassign the keys, so you could make d r m ... = C D E... and either transpose to the desired key afterwards, or perform some trick with the staff transposition.

All speculation, unless the OP can give us a picture of what they want.

It's fairly easy to put some stickers on your MIDI keyboard, key C saying "do", key D saying "re" and so on. Then transpose your MIDI keyboard, e.g. for a G major piece +7 semitones. Thus, you can press a C key and enter a note G which is a Do in G-major. Works with Speedy and Simple, and playback should also be good.