Transposing instruments

Any staff can be defined to have any instrument transposition; for example, a trumpet staff can be notated up a whole step, yet Finale will still play the music at concert pitch. While you’re working on the document, you can be looking at the instrumental staves either in their transposed or concert-pitch forms. For steps to create two transpositions in the same staff, such as a saxophone switching to flute for a few bars, see To define a staff with a double transposition.

To define a staff transposition

1. Click the Staff Tool  , and double-click the staff handle to be transposed. The Staff Attributes dialog box appears.
2. Select the Transposition; click Select. The Staff Transpositions dialog box appears.
3. Specify the desired transposition. See Staff Transposition dialog box for details on settings.
4. Click OK (or press return). You return to the Staff Attributes dialog box. If there’s another staff for which you want to set the transposition, simply choose it from the Staff popup menu at the top of the dialog box.
5. Click OK (or press return).

To transpose a staff chromatically

1. Click the Staff Tool  , click the staff handle you want to transpose, then choose Edit Staff Attributes from the Staff Menu (or double-click the staff). The Staff Attributes dialog box appears.
2. Click Transposition. Click Select. The Staff Transpositions dialog box appears.
3. Click Chromatic and choose the desired transposition from the popup menu. Or choose Other to create your own instrument transpositions for less common instruments.
4. To choose a different clef for the transposed staff, click Set to Clef to select it, then click the desired clef.
5. Click OK. You return to the Staff Attributes dialog box.
6. Click OK to dismiss the dialog box. Accidentals appear on all altered notes.

To display a score in concert pitch (or in transposed form)

Once you’ve established the transpositions for your instrumental staves as described in “ To define a staff transposition, above, you can tell Finale whether or not it should display the full score in its transposed form.

• From the Document Menu, choose Display score in concert pitch. If this option is selected, all music appears in its untransposed form (concert pitch) and a checkmark appears next to the menu item. When this option isn’t selected, any staff you’ve defined as a transposing staff will appear in its transposed form, just as it will when the part is extracted.

To define a staff with a double transposition

1. Define the primary instrument’s transposition, as described in “ To define a staff transposition, above.

Tip: If you’re using one of MakeMusic’s templates or created your score with the Wizard, the transposition is already set correctly.

2. Click the Staff Tool  . The Staff Menu appears.
3. Select the region that will have the second instrument. See Selecting music for hints on selecting shortcuts.
4. From the Staff Menu, choose Apply Staff Styles. You can also select Apply Staff Styles from the contextual menu by control-clicking in the staff. The Apply Staff Style dialog box appears.
5. Select the appropriate transposition from the popup menu of available Staff Styles. If you don’t see the desired transposition, see Staff Styles for instructions on how to create a new Staff Style.
6. Click OK. The transposition will be applied to the selected region. You can assign a metatool to a Staff Style to make applying a quicker process. See Staff Styles for details.