Beaming: Secondary beams

If rhythmic values smaller than eighth notes are beamed together, the sixteenth-note (and smaller value) beams are called secondary beams. Finale provides considerable independent control for such beams.

To break secondary beams

If you want, you can specify places to break secondary beams even though the primary (eighth note) beam continues.

1. Click the Special Tools Tool  , and click the measure in question.
2. Click the Beam Break Tool  . A handle appears over every note grouped by a secondary beam.
3. Double-click the handle at the right end of the pair of notes whose beam you want to break. The Secondary Beam Break Selection dialog box appears, letting you specify exactly which beams you want to break. If you select Break Only, you can specify individual levels of beams to be broken; thus if you select Break Only 32nds, the sixteenth-note beam (and always the eighth note beam) will remain intact. If you select Break Through, however, Finale will break the beams of the note value you specify and all smaller values.
4. Select the desired Break options, and click OK (or press return). To restore the beam grouping, click the handle you used to make modifications. When the dialog box appears, click Reset.

To change a broken beam’s direction

Depending on the meter, it’s sometimes useful to override Finale’s decision about which direction a secondary beam “stub” should extend: Using the Broken Beam Tool, you can flip such a stub from its default position (below, left) to the other side (below, right).

1. Click the Special Tools Tool   and click the measure in question.
2. Click the Broken Beam Tool  . Handles appears on each broken beam in the measure.
3. Click a handle to flip the beam in the opposite direction. Click the handle again to restore the beam stub’s original direction.

To change the distance between beams

Finale lets you specify the amount of vertical space between the beams in sixteenth-note (or smaller value) beam groupings.

1. From the Document Menu, choose Document Options, then select Beams. The Beam options appear.
2. Enter a new number in the Secondary Beam Separation text box.
3. Click OK (or press return). You can also change the separation between secondary beams on a case-by-case basis with the Secondary Beam Angle Tool in the Special Tools Tool. See Beaming: feathered beaming.

To change the angles of secondary beams

See Beaming: feathered beaming.

To change the height of stems in secondary beams

1. Click the Special Tools Tool   and click the measure in question.
2. Click the Beamed Stem Length Tool  . Handles appears on each beamed stem in the measure.
3. Drag the handles to the desired location. For example, stems could be dragged to touch the beam closest to the noteheads, and not go all the way through the secondary beams. Don’t forget that you can select more than one handle at a time.