Rolled chords

The rolled-chord marking (a vertical wavy line) uses a special Articulation feature called Copy the Main Symbol Vertically, letting you drag the wavy line to make it as long or as short as you want it to be.

If you’ve loaded an Articulation library into your file (or started with the Setup Wizard, a template, or new Default Document), you don’t have to create the marking anew. It is already defined in slot 31 of the Articulation Designer. To define one yourself, follow these steps.

To create the rolled chord marking

1. Click the Articulation Tool  .
2. Click the bottom note of the chord. The Articulation Selection dialog box appears. If the rolled chord marking appears in the palette, double-click it; the marking appears in the score. If not:
3. Click Create. The Articulation Designer appears.
4. Click Main. The Symbol Selection dialog box appears.
5. Double-click the symbol (#103). If you have trouble finding it, scroll to slot 103 and click the symbol. Click OK.
6. Select Copy the Main Symbol. This command lets you to stretch the marking as long as necessary. Make sure Vertically is selected in the drop-down list menu.
7. Press enter twice. The marking appears in the score, superimposed on the chord. See “To adjust, move, or delete the rolled chord marking.”

To adjust, move, or delete the rolled chord marking

1. Click the Articulation Tool  .
2. Drag the top handle horizontally to move the entire marking. Drag the bottom handle up or down to shorten or lengthen the marking.
3. Click either handle and press delete to remove the marking.

To define a rolled chord marking for playback

Human Playback interprets and performs roll articulations during playback automatically. See Human Playback. To hear manual changes to the MIDI playback definition of rolled chords (such as those described in this section), you must first set Human Playback to None in the Playback Settings dialog box.

Note: Playback is defined to roll the chord from bottom to top (as defined in the following steps) by default if you started a document with the Setup Wizard, template, or new default document.

1. Click the Articulation Tool  . If you haven’t yet placed the marking in the score, click the chord to be rolled. When the Articulation Selection dialog box appears, click the rolled chord marking and click Edit, and then skip to step 4.
2. Click the rolled chord. A square handle appears at the top and bottom of the marking.
3. Double-click a handle. The Articulation Designer dialog box appears.
4. From the Playback Effect drop-down list, choose Change Attack. Enter 0 as the Top Note Value, and –256 as the Bottom Note Value. The Top Note Value and Bottom Note Value define how the chord is rolled. The units are 1024ths of a quarter note; thus, a negative Bottom Note Value tells Finale to strike the bottom note slightly before the beat during playback. The attacks of any chord notes between the top and bottom notes are scaled proportionally between the Top Note Value and Bottom Note Value, producing a true rolled chord sound. (You may also wish to select Values Are Percentages, which lets you enter percentages into these text boxes; 100% would equal the value of whatever note the marking is attached to.)

If you want the chord rolled from top to bottom, enter the negative number as the Top Note Value, and zero as the Bottom Note Value. (If you enter zero as the Bottom Note Value and a positive Top Note Value, the upper chord notes will be struck late—in other words, the chord roll will begin on the beat.)

5. Press enter twice to exit the dialog boxes.