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Speedy Entry

With the Speedy Entry tool, you can enter music in step-time very efficiently, using the synthesizer to specify the pitch of each note and the computer keyboard to specify the duration.

To enter music in step time using MIDI

Click the Speedy Entry tool . The Speedy menu appears.
Choose Speedy > Use MIDI Device for Input.
Click the first measure into which you want to enter music. The Speedy Entry editing frame appears.
To enter a note or chord, hold down the desired key (or keys) on the synthesizer and press a number key on the computer keypad corresponding to the desired rhythmic value. If you press a number key without holding down any synthesizer keys, a rest of the specified value appears. If you want to insert a note, chord, or rest before the insertion bar, press shift as you press the number key. Press the period key to dot the note (you can add up to ten dots by repeating this action).

If the next few notes you want to enter are part of a tuplet (a triplet, quintuplet, etc.), press CTRL+number, where 3 means triplet, 5 means quintuplet, and so on. Finale places a small “3” (or whatever number you pressed) in the upper right corner of the editing frame; the next notes you enter will automatically be grouped into a tuplet. (If you want to create an uncommon tuplet—such as 11 in the space of 2—press CTRL+1. The Tuplet Definition dialog box appears, in which you can specify exactly what kind of tuplet you’re about to create.)

To change the rhythmic value of a note or rest, position the insertion bar on it and press the number key corresponding to the desired value. The following diagram shows which keys correspond to which note values.

Speedy Entry Keyboard Commands

Move the insertion bar either by pressing the right or left arrow keys or by clicking the desired note. If Finale presents the There Are Too Many Beats In This Measure dialog box when you change a note’s value, press ENTER to eliminate the dialog box. If you choose Jump to Next Measure from the Speedy menu, so that a check mark no longer appears, this dialog box will only appear when you exit the editing frame of a measure with too many beats.

To add a note to a chord, position the crossbar at the desired pitch, and press enter. You can also double-click where you want the new note to appear.
To remove a note, chord or rest, position the insertion bar on it and press DELETE. To remove a single note from a chord, position both the insertion bar and the pitch crossbar) on the notehead and press BACKSPACE or SHIFT+DELETE.
To change a rest to a note, position the insertion bar on it, position the crossbar at the desired pitch, and press enter. This method can also be used to add a note to an existing chord. You can change a single note (not a chord) to a rest by pressing BACKSPACE.
To change a note to a different note or chord without changing the duration, position the crossbar on the note, hold down the desired note or chord on the MIDI keyboard, and press enter.
To move a note or rest horizontally, drag it to the left or right. Press the shift key as you drag to prevent you from accidentally dragging the note or rest up or down.
To move a rest vertically, drag it up or down.
To move a note vertically, drag it up or down. Press the shift key as you drag to prevent you from accidentally dragging the note or rest horizontally. If you want to move a whole chord up or down, double-click it; on the second click, keep the mouse button pressed and drag up or down.
To hide a note or rest, position the insertion bar on it and press the letter O or H key. Press the O key again to display the note or rest again. See also Notes and Rests (Hide) Plug-in, Notes and Rests (Show) Plug-in.
To flip a stem, press the L key. This process freezes the stem up or down, so that it’s no longer free to flip if, for example, it gets transposed. To restore the note to its “flippable” status, press CTRL+L.
To raise a note by half steps, position both the insertion bar and the crossbar on it and press the plus (+) key. The minus (–) key lowers the note by half steps; both keys only apply accidentals to an existing note, and won’t actually move the note higher or lower on the staff. You can add up to seven sharps or flats to a note. Press CTRL+plus or minus, to apply the accidental through the rest of the measure. Use S to add a sharp, F for a flat and N for a natural.
To change a note to its enharmonic equivalent, position both the insertion bar and the crossbar on it and press the 9 key. With the insertion bar on a note, press CTRL+9, to change the spelling of a note through the rest of the measure. If the pitch crossbar isn’t squarely on a notehead, Finale changes the “spelling” of all notes in the chord each time you press 9.
To hide an accidental, position both the insertion bar and the crossbar on it and press the asterisk (*) key. If no accidental is displayed, the asterisk key forces a courtesy accidental to appear; for parentheses, press the P key. If you’ve hidden an accidental, press the asterisk key again to display it again.
To create or break a beam, position the insertion bar on the second note of the pair and press the slash (/) or B key. If the notes were flagged separately, they’re now beamed; if they were beamed, the beam is broken (and the notes are individually flagged, if they’re not beamed to any other notes). Use SHIFT+B to restore the beaming to the defaults found in Document Options-Beams.
To flatten a beam, position the insertion bar in the beam group and press the backslash (\) or M key. If the beam was already flattened in Speedy Entry the beam will now return to the default angle. See Flat Beams Plug-in, Flat Beams (Remove) Plug-in.
To tie notes, position the insertion bar on the first note and press = or T. To tie the previous notes, press CTRL+= or CTRL+T.
To add a dot to a note, position the insertion bar on the note and press . (period).
To switch layers (from Layer 1 to Layer 2, for example), press SHIFT+’ (apostrophe). To switch voices (from Voice 1 to Voice 2, for example), press the apostrophe key alone. For a more complete discussion of multiple voice mechanisms, see Multiple voices.
To advance to the next measure, press the right bracket (]) key. Pressing the left bracket ([) key moves the editing frame to the previous measure. Press SHIFT+down arrow to move down a staff, or SHIFT+UP ARROW to move up a staff.

To enter many notes of the same value (hands-free MIDI method)

Click the Speedy Entry tool , and click a measure. The editing frame appears.
Press caps lock; then press the number key on the computer keyboard corresponding to the value you want to enter. In other words, you’re now telling Finale what the note values are going to be before you specify the pitches. Use CTRL+number to enter a series of tuplets.
The number you press appears in the lower-left corner of the editing frame. The tuplet number, if any, appears in the top-right corner of the editing frame.
Play the notes on your MIDI keyboard. Each note you play appears in the score; if Jump to Next Measure is checked in the Speedy menu, the editing frame advances automatically as soon as you fill each measure. It’s safe to outplay Finale, too; it will remember up to 500 notes (and continue to notate them as fast as your computer allows). To enter rests, play a three-note cluster, in other words, three notes each a half-step apart.

You can also use the Speedy Entry tool to enter music in step-time without using a MIDI device. Use the number keys on your keypad to specify the durations of notes, just as you normally do. But to specify the pitches, you can use the arrow keys or the alphabet keys to move the pitch crossbar instead of using the MIDI device. With practice, this method of “typing in the music” can become extremely quick and precise.

To enter music in step time without MIDI

Click the Speedy Entry tool . The Speedy menu appears.
Choose Speedy > Use MIDI Device for Input and make sure it is unchecked.
Click the first measure in which notes are to appear. The editing frame appears.
Use the arrow keys to place the cursor on the desired pitch. Press a number key (corresponding to a rhythmic value) to create a note. Hold down CONTROL, shift and a number key to create a rest. You can also use the method below to specify the pitch.
Hit the Caps Lock key, then press a letter key on your computer keyboard to specify a pitch. Press a number key (corresponding to a rhythmic value) to create a note. Hold down CONTROL, shift and a number key to create a rest. The alphabet keys on your keyboard have been assigned pitch values in three octaves, as shown:

If you want to access a lower register, press the letter I key, which shifts the entire alpha-key pitch mapping down an octave. Press the comma (,) key to shift the entire keyboard up an octave. In either case, you can restore the alphabet keys to their original octave by pressing the K key. To help you remember, think of it this way: press a key (I, K, or comma) to designate the row of letter keys you want to contain middle C.

For a diagram showing the assignment of rhythmic values to the number keys, see To enter music in step time using MIDI, above.

To insert a note or a rest in a measure

Click the Speedy Entry tool . The Speedy menu appears.
Position the cursor on the entry before which you want the note inserted.
Chosoe Speedy > Insert Notes or Rests. Press the number (using the keyboard, not the number pad) representing the note duration you are inserting. If you are holding down a key on your MIDI device, you will insert a note. Otherwise, you will insert a rest. For non-MIDI, press a number to insert a note, or CTRL and a number to insert a rest.