But Finale, which takes a tools-based approach to organization, puts those related items in separate tools. Dynamics, for example, would include mezzo-forte markings, as well as hairpins. But it’s still just that-a computer program.Īs musicians, we tend to categorize items by their musical function.
Finale’s logic and organization allow for it to be a very streamlined computer program. The interface between the two has always been the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for any notation program. But musicians also don’t think like computers. When you first open Finale and see those items, they will likely have no meaning to you, but once you start learning more about Layers, just knowing that those options exist, as well as exploring what they can do is going to give you a significant advantage.Ĭomputers don’t think like musicians. If you don’t read everything first, you may not even think to look!Ī couple of important items that my students often overlook are the “Show Active Layer Only” option ( Document Menu ) and the “Move/Copy Layers…” option ( Edit Menu ). You’ll search around, find what you’re looking for, and begin exploring what it does. You will eventually come to a point where you need to do a specific task and you may recall seeing something related to that task in one of the menus or windows. If you’re brand new to Finale, you will likely not understand half of what you’re reading, but the idea is that you’re giving your brain a roadmap as to where to find things.
The idea behind this is that you’re giving yourself an overview of the whole program: looking at the forest before you start looking at the trees. Although I wondered how long it took her to do that, it’s a brilliant strategy for learning Finale, not to mention any other computer program. She did all of this before she even entered a note in Finale.
#Finale notepad change time signature windows
After that, she started opening windows and read all of the items available in those windows. Then she read every item in all of the submenus, as well. Emily Grishman, the great New York City Theater Copyist, talks about how when she first learned Finale, she spent a ton of time simply clicking on every menu and reading, one by one, every single item in every single menu. So with that in mind, here are five tips that I believe will help you grasp some of Finale’s logic and also help you help yourself learn Finale. That, to me, is true mastery! Reading through every menu, adopting a tools-based mindset for organization, researching faster ways to accomplish tasks, using the metatools, and tapping into readily-available resources are just a handful of ways to familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of Finale.
#Finale notepad change time signature how to
Since I started developing my tutorial series called Conquering Finale and teaching Finale directly to students, I have discovered some key insights about how and why students often miss some of these core concepts while attempting to learn the program on their own.Īs a teacher of Finale, my ultimate goal is not to teach my students how to do every single thing in Finale, but rather to teach them how to figure things out on their own. Once you start grasping these core concepts, the learning curve will be severely flattened. Like most complex computer programs, Finale is best learned when the user can comprehend the logic and organization of the program.
0 kommentar(er)
