Did you know that you can enter chords on your MIDI keyboard to create Chord Symbols over the staff?
If you would like Finale to recognize MIDI entry to generate chord symbols, choose Allow MIDI Input from the Chord Menu. For many of Finale’s existing chord libraries, this is all you need to do; with the Chord Tool selected, you’ll be able to play in (typically root position) chord voicings on your MIDI keyboard to produce chord symbols at the bar and beat locations you specify.
Depending on the chord library you choose, you might find that an existing chord library or a particular chord symbol within the library doesn’t recognize your chord entry.
Only chords that have been defined for MIDI entry will produce Chord Symbol text.
Fortunately, it is straightforward to enter new MIDI chord definitions which can be used to generate a specific chord symbols:
- Select the Chord tool
- Select Edit Learned Chords… from the Chord Menu
- The Edit Learned Chords dialog will open
- Click the Find… button to see if the keyboard voicing is already defined. (if you are defining custom chord suffixes or building your chord suffix library from scratch, click Learn… instead)
- Play the chord you want Finale to learn / play back
- The Chord Definition dialog will open
- Click Show Advanced, if the Definition section of the dialog is not already showing
- Click the Select Button in the Suffix section next to the ID field
- Locate and select the chord suffix that corresponds to the chord you just played
- OK the Chord Definition dialog
- You will see your newly defined chord displayed
Continue with more definitions as needed, from step 4 above, or OK and exit this dialog when complete
Your chord symbols will now be assigned correctly for MIDI entry.