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Finale : Automated Bar Numbers & Instrument Family Group Brackets

Q: We just came across something that seems to be a major annoyance in Finale. We had never run into it before because we usually start from a Document Style with the Setup Wizard, rather than creating a template from an existing file.

It seems that when you add, delete, or change an instrument from the Score Manager, it resets staff attributes for a bunch of staves all at once. For example, our templates were set to only display measure numbers over the first Violins in the score, but on making any change it resets the attributes of the first staff in each instrument choir, so all of a sudden we have huge measure numbers all over the page, and redundant grand staff braces and / or brackets are created.

I wanted to ask you if you’d encountered this issue before, and if there’s a solution.

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Reposition Staves Vertically In Finale

It’s common practice to include a little extra space between groups of instruments throughout the score. It’s also common to see extra space above staves which are showing tempo or metronome marks. And finally, for vocal scores, a little extra consistent space is typically required for lyrics under vocal staves.

When creating a new score, in the Document Setup Wizard, there is an option to “Add Vertical Space”, which is great for defining a little extra space between specific staves when you are starting a project:

The actual amount of vertical space that is added here is determined by the settings in Finale’s Document Options > Staves dialog. This is also where you can control the default distance between the instrument staves themselves.

ADJUST VERTICAL POSITIONING WITH THE RESPACE STAVES DIALOG

But what if I want to adjust vertical positioning of certain staves in an existing score?

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Vertical Spacing of Staves and Systems in Finale

Q: I’m working on an orchestral score in Finale, and I’m having some trouble with the vertical staff spacing. Is there something like the Space Systems evenly tool, but for staves within a system? Finale’s leaving a big margin on the bottom! Thanks!

With orchestral scores, one system very often represents a full page of music, and so in this case, we want to adjust the vertical positioning between the staves themselves, rather than the distance between systems to create the proper look. Fortunately, Finale offers some great tools for this purpose.

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Finale : Using Linked Parts, Finalescript & House Styles for Commercial Parts

Back in 2011, I posted Making Efficient Use of Linked Parts In Finale which outlined a few of the advantages of using Linked Parts in Finale vs. the “old school” method of individual part extraction, or pasting parts into a separate template file.

Recently, a conversation with an industry colleague made me realize that even 6 years after the introduction of Linked Parts in Finale, some of the very best veteran professional music copyists working in LA and elsewhere still are not taking advantage of Finale’s Managed Parts feature.

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Page Numbering in Finale & Sibelius : Ranges : X of Y

This tutorial was updated 9/26/12.

Question: A client wants the page numbering to read, page 2 of 7, page 3 of 7, etc., for pdf downloads of some piano pieces (regular numbering for print versions). These would be in the upper outside corners where standard page numbers would appear. If you can tell me whether this can be done and how, I would greatly appreciate it.

Depending on whether you are using Finale or Sibelius, you’ll be using text “Inserts” or “Wildcards: to facilitate this. Here’s how:

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Keep it Together in Finale or Sibelius : Score & Parts in the same file

In the early days of Finale and Sibelius, individual parts were generated from a master score via a painful and aptly named process referred to as “Extraction”. The programs would dutifully export twenty or thirty cryptically named parts files onto your Desktop which would then need to be cleaned up and individually prepared for printing. Any subsequent changes to the score *also* required edits to one or more (or all) respective parts.

Today, parts are integrated within the score and the content is intelligently married. Sibelius calls its parts integration feature “Dynamic Parts“, while Finale labels their feature “Linked Parts“. In general, having scores and parts linked in one master file has proven to be a godsend, but there are some caveats.

Woodwind and brass instruments aren’t polyphonic.  With some notable quality control exceptions in currently published music, common practice is to have one instrument per staff in the parts. Ideally, woodwind and brass players should not be required to locate their lines from within a divisi part.

At the same time, the better organized an orchestral score is, the more readable it becomes. Generally scores with fewer systems are easier to read. Quite often, the requirement is for pairs of instruments appearing on a single staff wherever possible: Clarinet 1 and 2 on a single staff, Horn 1 and 3 on a single staff and so on. For this tutorial, we’ll start with divisi or chorded staves in the score, and create individual parts from these.

Let’s take a look at how each program currently integrates score and parts, and some ways we can make Finale and Sibelius best work to our advantage despite any limitations.

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Printing Two Separate Parts Side By Side As Matched Pairs of Pages

Q: I’m preparing a score in Finale 2011 for a piano ensemble, i.e. for two pianists playing simultaneously at one piano. How can I print the score so that the 1st and 2nd parts are printed on even and odd pages correspondingly?

A: Finale doesn’t have a specific feature to do this. However, it is possible to print individual pages in such a way that everything is sequential, as well as in matched pairs. There are just a few things to keep in mind:

  1. Match the layouts in two separate parts so that the starting and ending bar numbering for each pair of pages will be consistent between the two parts.
  2. Hide the page numbers in the Finale file, since these will not be correct when you line the pages up side by side. Right click the page numbers, and uncheck “Show”.
  3. Print the individual parts and tape the pages together in pairs so that Piano 1 and Piano 2 pages line up correctly. As mentioned above in #1, the bar numbering and layout for each part should match at the start and end of every page.

ADD PAGE NUMBERS & PRINT AS A BOOKLET

Using a PDF editing program such as Acrobat Pro, you can combine the pages in proper order after the fact. Save each page of each of the two parts as separate PDF files, then combine the files to assemble them in order: Piano 1, page 1, Piano 2, page 1, Piano 1, page 2, Piano2, page 2 etc.

Once the file is assembled linearly, you can optionally add page numbers to the assembled PDF file, as well as use any of the normal features supported by your printer to create a booklet etc.

Finally, add a title page the front cover, then start the Piano 1 part on a left facing page (even numbered) rather than the standard right facing page (odd numbered) in order that pairs of pages will always be displayed as you open out the printed booklet.

OTHER LAYOUT OPTIONS

It should be noted that another, perhaps more standard approach would be to create a part which is 4 staves, with piano 1 and piano 2 vertically aligned; essentially a “mini-score”. If your score is 2 pianos only, you can do the layout right in the score. If the two pianos are parts in a larger score, from Managed Parts, create a single part which contains both instruments by selecting the Piano 1 Instrument in the left column of Managed Parts, then selecting Piano 2 in the right column, and selecting “Add to Instrument” so that it shows up in the “Staves and Groups in Part” center column under Piano 1. Finally, select “Edit Part Name” and rename to “Piano 1 & 2”.

That’s it!
robert

related : Piano Music for Four Hands in Sibelius