Chord symbols

1. Choose the Chord tool . The Chord menu appears.
2. Ensure Chord > Manual Input is checked.

Noteman says: Press a single note within an octave above Middle C to advance the cursor to the next note/beat. Press a single note within an octave below Middle C to move to the previous note. Play a single note above/below middle C to advance forward/backward by full measures. Play middle C when an existing chord is highlighted to move the cursor up.

3. If you want to add chord symbols to the score by playing them, one by one, on a MIDI keyboard, choose Chord >Allow MIDI Input, and then click a beat in the score. The blinking cursor appears. Play a chord, in any register, on your synthesizer; Finale places the chord symbol into the score, aligned with the baseline (controlled by the four triangles at the left side of the screen). If you don’t play the chord in root position, Finale writes it as a chord-slash-bass note, as in “Am/E.” (You can use this same blinking cursor to type chords into the score.)
4. If you want Finale to analyze a chord notated in the score, choose One-Staff Analysis, Two-Staff Analysis, or All-Staff Analysis from the Chord menu (depending on which notes you want to analyze), and then click the chord. Finale immediately analyzes the chord you clicked, and places the chord symbol into the score. Click again on each note or beat for which you want a chord symbol to appear.

1. Choose the Chord tool . The Chord menu appears.
2. Choose Chord > Manual Input.
3. Click the note or beat on which you want the chord to appear. A cursor appears above the staff, aligned with the chord positioning triangles.

   View the Using the positioning triangles QuickStart Video for a demonstration of how to use the positioning triangles.

4. Type the chord that you want to appear in the score, such as “BbM7/C”. Type an underscore (SHIFT+hyphen) instead of a slash if you want the alternate bass note (C in this example) placed under the root. You can also use a bar (SHIFT+backslash) to place the alternate bass note slightly to the lower right of the chord.
   
   
   
5. Alternatively, type a colon followed by the slot number of the suffix shown in the Chord Suffix Selection dialog box. Or, type a colon followed by zero. If you type a slot number, Finale displays the corresponding suffix from the Chord Suffix Selection dialog box. If you type a zero, the Chord Suffix Selection dialog box is displayed, where you can choose a suffix. See keystroke table for a list of keyboard shortcuts you can use to quickly enter chord symbols.
   
   
   
6. Type uppercase letters unless you want the root and alternate bass note to use lowercase letters. For example, Roman numerals typically indicate quality (I for Major, ii for minor), so in the key of C Major, you’d type a lowercase “d” to display “ii” in the score (as opposed to “II” that appears if you type an uppercase “D”).
   
   
   

   Regardless of the chord style selected in the Chord Style submenu, you must type letters (C, D, E and so on) for the chord root and alternate bass note. Finale does not accept Roman numerals (I, IV, V and so on) or scale degrees typed into the score. For example, when Roman is selected (a checkmark appears next to Roman in the Chord Style submenu), you’d type the letter “F” to display IV in the key of C Major.

7. Press enter to accept the change. Or, press SPACEBAR, or SHIFT+RIGHT ARROW to move to the next entry. Press tab to move to the next measure, or click the next beat on which you want a chord to appear. To move to the previous entry, press SHIFT+SPACEBAR or SHIFT+LEFT ARROW. To move to the previous measure, press SHIFT+TAB.

   If Finale doesn’t recognize the suffix, the Unknown Chord Suffix dialog box appears, in which you can choose to add the suffix to the chord suffix library.

8. If you want to enter or edit another alternate chord on the same note, press the UP or DOWN ARROW.
9. Continue entering the chords in this manner. See Tips for entering chord symbols manually for keyboard shortcuts and more information regarding typing-in chord symbols.

Instead of creating a chord symbol by typing numbers and clicking a chord suffix, you can play this data from your MIDI keyboard.

Noteman says: View the Playing-in chord symbols QuickStart Video for an overview.

1. Choose the Chord tool . Check both Manual Input and Allow MIDI Input under the Chord menu.
2. Click the beat on which you want the chord to appear. A blinking cursor appears.
3. Play the chord on your MIDI keyboard. Finale inserts the chord played, taking into account the alternate bass, and moves the cursor to the next beat.
4. Play a note within the octave above/below middle C to move the cursor forward or backward a beat.
5. Play a note higher/lower than an octave above/below middle C to move the cursor forward or backward full measures. Play middle C when an existing chord is highlighted to move the cursor up.

1. Choose the Chord tool . The Chord menu appears.
2. Choose Chord > Manual Input.
3. Double-click on the chord symbol you want to change.
4. If more than one chord is assigned to the same note, press the UP or DOWN ARROW to select the chord you want to edit.
5. Select the portion of the chord you want to change, and type the change.
6. Press ENTER to accept the change. Or, press SPACEBAR, or SHIFT+RIGHT ARROW to move to the next entry. Press TAB to move to the next measure, or click the next beat on which you want a chord to appear. To move to the previous entry, press SHIFT+SPACEBAR or SHIFT+LEFT ARROW. To move to the previous measure, press SHIFT+TAB.

   If Finale doesn’t recognize the suffix, the Unknown Chord Suffix dialog box appears, in which you can choose to add the suffix to the chord suffix library.

Finale automatically allows you to enter chord symbols on every beat, regardless of whether a note or rest appears on that beat. If beats are subdivided by notes or rests, Finale also provides a cursor for chord symbol entry on each note or rest. If you would like to add a chord symbol between beats, and there is no note or rest subdividing the beat, you can enter invisible notes or rests in an unused layer in order to provide an attachment point for the chord. This method is preferable to manually repositioning chord symbols (so that they are offset from the main beat) if you are using chord playback (Chord > Enable Chord Playback), and want to specify the precise rhythmic subdivision of chord playback.

1. Enter “dummy” rests in Layer 4, one for each chord symbol you want to add.
2. Attach chord symbols to the “dummy” rests using Type Into Score.
3. Choose the Staff tool and select the “dummy” measures.
4. Choose Staff > Apply Staff Styles. The Apply Staff Style dialog box appears.
5. Select Blank Notation - Layer 4, and click OK (or press ENTER). The “dummy” rests vanish, and your chord symbols remain in place.

   Using the Speedy Entry tool , however, you can still view your hidden Layer 4 rests (for spacing purposes, for example).

In this discussion, the source region is the music that currently contain the chords, and the target region is the music to which you want to copy them.

1. Choose the Selection tool .
2. Choose Edit > Edit Filter. The Edit Filter dialog box appears.
3. Select Chords (only). Click OK.
4. Select the source region. See Selecting music for some region-selecting shortcuts.
5. Drag the highlighted region so that it’s superimposed on the beginning of the target region. If the target passage is offscreen, scroll to it; then, while pressing CTRL and SHIFT simultaneously, click it.

The chords will automatically transpose if the source and target passages are in different keys.

1. Choose the Selection tool and select a region. See Selecting music for some region-selecting shortcuts.
2. Choose Edit > Clear Selected Items. The Clear Selected Items dialog box appears.
3. Click the None button to uncheck all, then check Chords and Fretboards.
4. Click OK (or press ENTER). Finale erases the chord symbols.

1. Choose the Chord tool .
2. Choose Chord > Manual Input.
3. Double-click the beat on which the chord symbol is to be attached. The Chord Definition dialog box appears.
4. Click on the Show Advanced button. The dialog box expands to show the Number Definition.
5. Enter the root scale tone number. If there’s a different bass note, click Alternate Bass and enter its scale tone in the Alternate Bass text box. For an F/G chord in the key of C, for example, the Root Scale Tone (F) is 4, the Alternate Bass is 5.
6. If you need to alter the scale degree chromatically, type a number into the Alteration boxes. This number, positive or negative, alters the scale tone by half steps. To create an A chord in the key of F, for example, the Root Scale Tone is 3 (the third note of the scale) and the Alteration is –1.

   Note the Alteration box is especially important if you want a chord symbol that’s out of the key and Simplify Spelling is turned on in the Chord menu. Suppose, for example, that you’re in the key of A, but you want an A flat chord symbol. You might assume that entering a scale degree of 1 (A) and an Alteration of –1 would do the trick—but in fact, you’d get a G chord symbol. To solve the problem, enter 2 in the Root box, and –3 in the Alteration box. In effect, you get an A flat chord symbol by specifying a B triple-flat.

7. Click Select button next to Suffix. The Chord Suffix Selection box appears. If you have loaded or created a Chord Suffix Library, the suffixes appear here.
8. Double-click the desired suffix. If there are no suffixes in the palette, either click Create to create a new suffix, or load a chord-suffix library, as described in To create or load a Chord Suffix Library.

   If you don’t want the chord symbol to play back, uncheck the appropriate Play box.

9. Click OK (or press ENTER).

1. Choose the Chord tool . The Chord menu appears.
2. Choose Chord > Manual Input.
3. Right-click the chord symbol you want to edit (or select the handle and press ENTER) and choose Edit Chord Definition. The Chord Definition dialog box appears.
4. Make the necessary changes. To force the root or alternate bass to appear in lowercase, click Lowercase to select it. If you want the root or alternate bass to appear in uppercase, make sure that Lowercase is not selected.
5. Click OK to return to the document, where the changes now appear.

When you edit a chord suffix, the changes you make affect every occurrence of this chord suffix in the score.

1. Choose the Chord tool .
2. Choose Chord > Manual Input.
3. Right-click the chord symbol you want to edit and choose Edit Chord Definition. The Chord Definition dialog box appears.
4. Click Edit Chord Suffix ID. The Chord Suffix Editor appears. In this window, you edit each character in the chord suffix individually, moving from one to the next with the Prev and Next buttons.
5. Change a character by editing the Symbol box. You can only type one letter at a time into this text box, unless you select Number, which lets you type a multi-digit number into the box. Instead of typing a character into the Symbol box, you can simply click Symbol, and you’ll see the complete palette of characters for the selected font.

   Note that you can prefix any chunk in the suffix box with a +, -, or character: click Prefix With and select the appropriate button.

6. Change the type style of the current character by clicking Set Font.

   Remember, you must set the font for each character individually. Be careful to match this chord suffix font with a complementary chord root font (which you choose by going to Document > Document Options > Fonts). You can also change the font for all chord symbols in a piece; see To change chord symbol fonts.

7. Adjust the position of a character:
   • Drag the character's handle with your mouse. To produce its handle, you must be editing this character (move from one to the next with the Prev and Next buttons).
   • Type coordinates into the H: (how far to the right?) and V: (how high up?) boxes. The units are whatever you’ve selected under Edit > Measurement Units. The numbers you type won’t affect the display until you click the Update box.

   If you’re having trouble positioning a character because the square handle obscures it, deselect the Show Handles check box. The handles become invisible but are still draggable — just click where a handle used to be.

8. Define the voicing this suffix is to use for playback by clicking Set Play. The Suffix Keynumber Offsets box appears, presenting a series of text boxes into which you can type the numbers that represent the notes of the suffix, as measured in half steps from the root.

   A quick way to enter this data is to click Listen; Finale displays a message asking you to play the root of the chord, so it will have a point of reference from which to compute the keynumber offsets. Immediately after you do so, Finale tells you that it’s still listening; now play the suffix itself. Finale enters the appropriate numbers in the text boxes.

   Remember that even though you just played a specific root and voicing, this suffix will remember the voicing no matter what its root—you define the playback voicing for your Fmaj7, Emaj7, and Cmaj7 chords all at once, for example.

If you plan to enter chords from your MIDI keyboard (or by letting Finale analyze existing chords in the score), you can save time by anticipating the learned chords you’ll need to teach Finale. For example, if your piece contains “V11” chords (such as F/G or Dm7/G), major sixth chords, or any chords with nonstandard names (C2, for example), use this method to teach them to Finale before you enter them. Once Finale has learned such chords, it will automatically display the proper symbol when it encounters them (via MIDI or by analyzing the notes in the score).

Of course, you can always create a learned chord while you’re entering chord symbols. When Finale displays the Unknown Chord Suffix dialog box, click I’ll Do It. The chord you then construct in the Chord Suffix Editor dialog box is a learned chord.

1. Choose the Chord tool . The Chord Menu appears.
2. Choose Chord > Edit Learned Chords. The Edit Learned Chords dialog box appears.

   Remember that Finale always associates a learned chord with a particular scale degree; therefore, if the key signature in the display isn’t the correct one for the music to which you’ll be adding chord symbols, click Set Key and specify the correct key, so that Finale can recognize the new chord in the correct context.

3. Click Learn. Finale asks you to play the chord on your MIDI keyboard.
4. Play the chord. What counts is the bass note and the selection of pitches in the chord; the voicing and the octave register don’t matter. As soon as you play the chord, Finale displays the Chord Definition dialog box, where you can build the actual chord symbol you want to associate with the pattern of notes you just played.
5. Construct the chord symbol in the usual way. Click OK (or press ENTER). See To define and enter a chord symbol manually or To enter a chord symbol manually with MIDI data input, for instructions in the use of the Chord Definition dialog box.

   When you return to the Edit Learned Chords dialog box, you can once again click Learn to repeat the process, teaching Finale as many new chord symbols as you want. Note that Finale stores learned chords along with regular Chord Suffixes in a Chord Suffix Library (see To create or load a Chord Suffix Library). Therefore, you can load the learned chords you create in one document into another one without having to redefine them.

6. Click OK (or press ENTER). The next time you add chord symbols to your score using Finale’s automatic (MIDI or note-analysis) methods, Finale recognizes the chord you’ve just taught it, and displays the chord symbol you’ve told it to use.

   Finale also recognizes the learned chord in other keys—but only if it falls on the same scale degree. That is, if you teach Finale to recognize Csus2 in the key of C, it also recognizes Fsus2 in the key of F—but it doesn’t recognize Fsus2 in the key of C, unless you teach it that chord too.

1. Choose the Chord tool . The Chord menu appears.
2. Choose Chord > Edit Learned Chords. The Edit Learned Chords dialog box appears.
3. Click Find. Finale asks you to play the learned chord you want to edit.

   If you prefer to locate the chord you want to edit by scrolling through the existing learned chords, click the Prev and Next buttons until it appears in the display.

4. Play the chord. If Finale recognizes what you played as a learned chord that it already knows, the corresponding chord symbol appears in the display.

   If Finale doesn’t recognize the chord you played, it will tell you so, and offer you the option of adding it to its existing bank of learned chords.

5. To delete the chord, click Delete. To edit the chord symbol itself, click Edit to enter the Chord Definition dialog box.
6. When you’re finished editing, click OK (or press ENTER).

1. Choose the Chord tool . The Chord menu appears.
2. Choose Chord > Manual Input.
3. Double-click the beat on which the chord symbol is to be centered. The Chord Definition dialog box appears.
4. Click the Listen box at the top right side of the box and play the root scale tone on your MIDI controller. Finale automatically fills in the Root Scale Tone and Alteration text boxes for you.
5. Click the second Listen button and play the bass note on your MIDI controller.

   If the bass note is different from the root, Finale fills in the Alternate Bass text boxes.

6. Click the third Listen button and play the rest of the chord on your MIDI controller.

   Finale only fills in the Suffix ID if it recognizes the suffix—in other words, if it matches a suffix definition in its Chord Suffix Library. If no library has been loaded, or if Finale doesn’t find a match, nothing happens.

7. Click OK (or press ENTER).

Finale’s chord symbols are intelligent enough to transpose automatically when you change the key signature; a Cmaj7 in the key of C will become an Fmaj7 in the key of F. If you inadvertently enter chord symbols before setting the key signature, however, you can use the following method to transpose the chord symbols independently of the key and the existing music.

1. Choose the Selection tool , and select the region containing the chord symbols that you want to transpose. See Selecting music for some region-selecting shortcuts.
2. Choose Utilities > Change > Chord Assignments. The Change Chord Assignments dialog box appears.
3. Click Transpose. The Transposition dialog box appears.
4. Specify the interval by which you want the chord symbols transposed, and click OK. Click OK again.

Noteman says: To prevent all chord symbols from playing back, deselect Chord > Enable Chord Playback.

When you create a chord symbol, the Play checkboxes in its Chord Definition are initially selected—in other words, the chord will play back unless you specify otherwise. Unchecking the Play checkboxes for each chord symbol would be one way to prevent the chords from playing, but it’s a technique best used on a case-by-case basis. To prevent all chord symbols in a staff from playing back, use the following technique.

1. Choose Window > Score Manager. The Score Manager appears.
2. Under the Name column, click on the arrow next to the name of the staff that has chords attached. The list expands to display the components of the staff, including Chords.
3. Click the square next to Chords in the M column. The chord symbols are now muted for this staff.

Once you’ve created or edited chord suffixes (or taught Finale to recognize “learned chords”) in a document, you can save them in a separate library with its own title and icon on your hard disk. The next time you want to add chord symbols to a piece, you can load this library, thus saving yourself the time it would take to create or edit the chord symbols (or learned chords) again.

1. Choose File > Save Library. The Save Library dialog box appears.
2. Click Chords & Fretboards, and then click OK (or press ENTER). You’re then asked to title the new library.
3. Type in a title and click OK (or press ENTER). The next time you want to add those chord symbols to a piece, simply load the library you just created (choose File > Load Library) and enter chord symbols in the usual way.

Noteman says: View the Using the positioning triangles QuickStart Video for a demonstration of how to use the positioning triangles.

1. Choose the Chord tool .
2. Click the staff containing the chord symbols. Four small arrows appear at the left edge of the screen. These arrows control the baseline for the chord symbols—the line against which the bottoms of the chord symbols align (make sure Chord > Position Chords is selected).
3. Adjust the chord symbols:
   • If you want to move more than one chord symbol, drag the positioning triangles up or down.
   • Drag the first (leftmost) triangle up or down to move all the chords in the piece.
   • Drag the second triangle to move the chords in this staff only, regardless of the position of the leftmost triangle.
   • Drag the third triangle, in Page View, to move the chords in this staff in this system only.
   • Dragging the rightmost triangle doesn’t move any existing chord symbols; instead, it sets the position for the next one you enter.

See Change Chord Assignments dialog box.

Generally, Finale centers each chord symbol above the note to which it’s attached. If you wish, you can specify that each chord symbol be left-justified, so that the first letter of the chord name falls above the note to which it’s attached.

1. Select the Chord tool . The Chord menu appears.
2. Choose Chord > Left Align Chords.

1. Choose the Chord tool . Chord handles appear.
2. Drag the chord's handle to move the chord. Select it and press the arrow keys to “nudge” it for fine positioning. The chord's attachment indicator line extends to the attached beat.
   
   

Fretboards accompany chord symbols when dragged or nudged individually. Drag or nudge a fretboard handle to reposition the fretboard diagram relative to its chord symbol.

This entry provides a quick way to change the font and size of the chord symbols and suffixes in your entire piece.

1. Choose Document > Document Options > Fonts.
2. Click Symbol. The Font dialog box appears. You’re about to choose a typeface for the root portion of all chord symbols in the piece—that is, the “C” portion of “Cmaj7.”
3. Make your type style selection; then click OK twice.
4. To change the font for chord-symbol suffixes, choose the Chord tool . You’re now going to be changing the font for the suffix—for example, the “maj7” portion of your chord symbols.
5. Choose Chord > Change Chord Suffix Fonts. The Change Chord Suffix Fonts dialog box appears.
6. To change the entire library of chord suffixes at once, click the Set Font button in the lower half of the screen. The Font dialog box appears, letting you specify new font, size, and style characteristics for the suffixes.
   • To change one aspect of the suffixes—such as the size—select the appropriate check box in the upper half of the Font dialog box. Click Set Font to specify which point size you want to replace (such as all 12-point elements). Then repeat the process in the lower half of the Font dialog box, this time clicking the lower Set Font button to specify a new point size.
   • Similarly, you can, in effect, search-and-replace for one specific type style and replace it with another; Finale leaves suffixes in other type styles untouched. For example, in the upper half of the Font dialog box, you could click Selected Fonts, then click all three check boxes, click Set Font and specify Times New Roman Geneva 12-point Plain. Repeat the process in the lower half of the Font dialog box, but this time choose, for example, Helvetica 10-point Italic; Finale would replace every occurrence of the former type style with the latter.
   • Finally, for best results, be sure that the Fix Chord Suffix Spacing check box is selected, so that Finale automatically adjusts the individual characters in each chord suffix to compensate for the new font and size.
7. Select a type style, and then click OK. You return to the document, where Finale has changed the font for your chord suffixes. Finale is smart enough, however, not to change any musical symbols within the suffix, such as the in F79.

1. Choose the Chord tool . Choose Chord > Manual Input.
2. Double-click in the middle of a measure. The Chord Definition dialog box appears.
3. If necessary, click the Show Advanced button. At the bottom of the dialog box, next to Suffix, click Select.
4. Choose the existing suffix that you wish to edit and click the Edit button. The Chord Suffix Editor dialog box appears.
5. Click the Next button until the handle in the preview area is on the "B" (the field in the upper right displays "b").
6. Click the Symbol button. The Symbol Selection dialog box appears.
7. Scroll through the list until you find the flat symbol (frequently found in slots 33 or 132).
8. Click the flat symbol and click the Select button.
9. Drag the handle to position the flat. You can also move the other suffix characters in the same manner; click the Prev or Next buttons to select the character, and then drag its handle.
10. When the suffix appears as you desire, click OK. The suffix is now ready to be used in your score.

You can repeat these steps as needed to correct the problem in your score. Once you have edited all of the suffixes, you can save them as a Chords and Fretboards library and load that library in other documents. For instructions, see To create or load a chord suffix library.

Tip: For a quick alternative to typing in your chord suffixes, type the chord symbol's root followed by ":0". This displays the Chord Suffix Selection dialog box, where you can choose the suffix that you need.

1. Choose the Chord tool . Choose Chord > Manual Input.
2. Type in the chord symbol that you want to define. In the warning message that appears, click Yes. The Chord Suffix Editor dialog box appears.
3. Click the Next button until the handle in the preview area is on the "B" (the field in the upper right displays "b").
4. Click the Symbol button. The Symbol Selection dialog box appears.
5. Scroll through the list until you find the flat symbol (frequently found in slots 33 or 132).
6. Click the flat symbol and click the Select button.
7. Drag the handle to position the flat. You can also move the other suffix characters in the same manner; click the Prev or Next buttons to select the character, and then drag its handle.
8. When the suffix appears as you desire, click OK to insert the symbol and return to the score.

To create a chord chart with lyrics without staves or notation, add lyrics and chords to a notation staff, and then hide the staff.

1. Create a new single-staff document. You can also use the LyricsChords template located in the General Templates folder.
2. Enter the melody in layer one, and then add the chords and lyrics. Because we'll be hiding the staff, the exact melody isn't required, just notes or rests to attach the chords and lyrics to. For more on adding chords and lyrics, see Chord Symbols and Lyrics.
3. Choose Window > Score Manager and select the score instrument.
4. Click the Staff drop-down menu, and choose 0-line with Full Barline.
5. Choose the Staff tool and double-click the staff.
6. Under items to display, uncheck everything.
7. Under Options, uncheck Display Rests in Empty Measures.
8. Click the Select button under Alternate Notation.
9. Choose Blank Notation and click OK.
10. Click OK to return to the document. Now, let's remove any remaining measure numbers.

Noteman says: View the Using the positioning triangles QuickStart Video for a demonstration of how to use the positioning triangles.

11. Choose the Measure tool . The lyric positioning triangles appear on the left side of the score.
12. Click and drag the leftmost positioning arrow to move all the lyrics into place.
13. Use the Page Layout Tool to finalize the layout. For example, you might want to drag the left and right page margins towards the center of the page a bit. For more on page layout, see Page layout.