Stems

This entry contains information on stem direction, length, position, thickness, and shape. See Stemless notes. 

To flip a stem

1. Click the Speedy Entry Tool  , and click the measure in question. The editing frame appears.
2. Click the note whose stem you want to flip. (Or use the arrow keys to position the insertion bar.) Make certain you’re in the correct layer (if you’ve entered music in Layers) and the correct voice (if you’re using the Voice 1/Voice 2 feature). Press shift-up arrow or shift-down arrow to change layers; press the apostrophe key to change voices.
3. Press the L key to freeze the stem in the opposite direction. When a stem is “frozen” up or down, it’s no longer free to change directions if it gets transposed. To restore a stem to its “floating” status, position the insertion bar on the note and press option-L.

To flip all stems in a region in one direction

1. Click the Selection Tool   and select the region to be affected. See Selecting music for some region-selecting shortcuts.
2. From the Utilities Menu, choose Stem Direction > Up (or Down). All stems in the selected region are now “frozen” in the direction you specified.

To change “frozen” stems back to variable-direction stems

1. Click the Selection Tool   and select the region to be affected. See Selecting music for some region-selecting shortcuts.
2. From the Utilities Menu, choose Stem Direction > choose Use Default Direction.

To change stem lengths, note by note

1. Click the Special Tools Tool  , and click the measure in question.
2. Click the Stem Length Tool  . A handle appears on every unbeamed stem. If you select the Beamed Stem Length Tool P, then the handles appear on all beamed stems.
3. Drag the desired handle up or down. As you drag, the stem length changes. Press shift as you drag to constrain the cursor to vertical movements, and moving the stem left or right. To restore the original stem length, click the handle and press delete.

To change stem lengths globally

1. From the Document Menu, choose Document Options and select Stems. The Stem options appear.
2. Change the numbers in the Normal Stem Length and Shortened Stem Length boxes. The numbers in these two text boxes set the lengths of note stems, measured in the currently selected measurement units. See Document Options-Stems for details.
3. Click OK (or press return).

To change the position of the stem relative to its notehead

If you want to change the position of a single stem, use the Stem Length Tool or Beamed Stem Length Tool (Special Tools Tool) to move the stem left or right.

Or, you may want to globally change the way a stem attaches to its note, especially when you’re working with alternate noteheads (slashes, diamonds, and so on). See Stem Connections dialog box.

To change the thickness of stems

1. From the Document Menu, choose Document Options and select Stems. The Stem options appear.
2. Enter a new number in the Stem Lines text box. The units are whatever you’ve selected in the Measurement Units submenu (Edit Menu). (The default setting for stems is half a point.)
3. Click OK (or press return).

To draw completely new shapes for stems

You don’t have to use a simple vertical line for a stem; you can customize stems by using any shape you can draw in Finale’s Shape Designer. This feature is particularly useful in creating “splayed” stemming for note clusters—for example, you might have a stem with three spokes extending to a C, C, and C struck at the same time.

1. Click the Special Tools Tool  , and click the measure in question.
2. Click the Custom Stem Tool  . A handle appears at the base of each stem.
3. Double-click the handle of the stem you want to change; in the dialog box that appears, click Create. The Shape Designer dialog box appears.
4. Draw the new stem’s shape. For instructions on using the Shape Designer, see Shape Designer. As you draw, remember that the small white dot you see in the Shape Designer—the origin—will appear at the base of the notehead, where the stem is normally connected.
5. When you’re finished, exit the Shape Designer by pressing return twice. To restore the original stem, click the modified note’s handle and press delete. Once you’ve created custom stems in a measure, you can copy the stem information to other measures.

To create a double or split stem

A double stem is a second stem, pointing in the opposite direction from the note’s original stem. A note with a double stem often signifies two voices in unison.

1. Click the Special Tools Tool  , and click the measure in question.
2. Click the Double/Split Stem Tool  . A handle appears on every notehead in the measure; another appears above the staff, and another below.
3. To create a double stem, click the handle below any note or chord. A second stem appears on the note you clicked, no matter which way the original stem pointed. To restore the note to its original single-stemmed status, click the lower handle again so that it’s no longer highlighted.

Once you’ve created a chord with a double stem, you can create split stemming within the chord, giving the effect of a separate inner voice.

4. To create a split stem, click the handle of each notehead that you want to attach to the upper stem only. Each notehead you click joins the upper stem. The remaining notes are attached to the lower stem. To restore a note to its original stem, click the split stem handle again so that it’s no longer highlighted.

To create reverse stems

A reverse stem is one that’s drawn on the “wrong” side of its notehead. It’s encountered most frequently in conjunction with cross-staff notes. See Reverse stems.

To copy custom stemming to other measures

1. Click the Selection Tool  .
2. Choose Edit Filter from the Edit Menu. A dialog box appears.
3. Click Stem and Beam Alterations. Click OK (or press return).
4. Select the source measures (the ones containing the custom stems).
5. Drag the first source measure so that it’s superimposed on the first target measure. Unless you’re dragging to a measure directly above or below the source measure, the “How many times?” dialog box appears.
6. Specify how many times you want the stemming information copied. Click OK.

To remove custom stemming from a region

1. Click the Selection Tool  , and select the measures in which the modified stems appear.
2. Choose Clear Items from the Edit Menu.
3. Proceeding through the dialog boxes, click as follows: Only Selected Items; Entries; Beam and Stem Alterations. Click OK (or press return) twice.