Hand Width Split

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How to get there

Choose Open from the File Menu, and select MIDI File from the File Type popup list. Double-click the name of a MIDI file you want transcribed. In the Import MIDI File Options dialog box, click Set Track-to-Staff List. In the Track/Channel Mapping for Staves dialog box, click the first row of information you haven’t yet filled in. Click Hand Width.

What it does

This dialog box lets you transcribe the contents of the sequencer tracks you’ve specified into two staves, splitting the notes according to the width of your hands, based on the numbers you enter in this dialog box. The advantage of this method of splitting your performance into right- and left-hand parts (as compared with the Fixed split point option) is that Finale follows your hands as they move up and down the keyboard, eliminating the need to specify a single, fixed split point—provided there’s always a large enough gap between the hands for Finale to know which hand is which.

Starting Right Hand Position • Starting Left Hand Position • Listen. These text boxes let you tell Finale where your right and left hands are at the beginning of the track(s) to be transcribed. The numbers are synthesizer key numbers (middle C is key number 60), and they specify the starting position of your leftmost finger of each hand.

Instead of calculating key numbers and entering them in these boxes, just click the Listen button, then play the note or chord that begins the left-hand (or right-hand) part of the track you’re transcribing. Finale automatically enters the key number into the appropriate text box (in which you’ve clicked the cursor).

Hand Width: • Listen. In this text box, enter the widest interval, in half steps, that either hand played during your performance. Instead of calculating the number of half steps, click Listen to MIDI, and play the widest interval. The checkbox is no longer selected, and the Hand Width text box displays the width of the interval.
OK • Cancel. Click OK to confirm, or Cancel to discard, the hand width settings you’ve just made. You return to the Track/Channel Mapping dialog box.