Working
with Inner voices: Layers
In this example, let’s suppose that you’ve
decided to add a few harmony notes.
Finale lets you have up to eight voices—independent
lines of music, each with its own stem—per staff. (Within each of the
eight voices, a chord can have up to twelve notes—a total of 96 notes
per staff on any given beat.) Most of the time, you’ll probably need only
two voices, stems up and stems down. You’ll find such music especially
easy to notate in Finale, because every staff can have four completely
independent layers of music. You can think of them as clear plastic overlays,
because each layer is utterly independent—each can even have its own MIDI
channel for playback. You can flip easily from one layer to the other,
and even hide the ones you’re not working on.
If you do need more voices, you’ll discover
that each layer can have two voices of its own, Voice 1 and Voice 2, giving
you a total of eight to work with. The Voice 1/Voice 2 mechanism is more
complex, however; save it for the times when you need more than four voices
per staff.
- From
the Document menu, choose Document Options, then select Layers.
You will see the Layer Options on the right side of the Document Options
dialog box. Here is where you control the behavior of each voice.
- For
Layer 1, Freeze Stems and Ties should be checked, and Up should be selected
from the drop-down list by default. Also, Freeze Ties in the Same
Direction as Stems and Apply Adjustment Only if Notes are in Other Layers
are checked. Choose Layer 2 from the Settings for drop-down list.
- For
Layer 2, select Freeze Stems and Ties, and then choose Down from the drop-down
list. Next, select Freeze Ties in the Same Direction as Stems and
Apply Adjustments Only if Notes are in Other Layers. Also click Adjust
Floating Rests by, and type –6 into the text box. Don’t panic! You’ve
simply told Finale that whenever there are two independent voices, Layer
1’s stems should automatically flip up, and Layer 2’s stems should flip
down. In such cases, ties should flip the “wrong” way to avoid collisions
with the other voice. You’ve also said that when Layer 2 has a rest, it
should appear four lines or spaces lower (–6) than its usual position
(the middle B line). You’ll see the effects of your settings soon.
- Click
OK. Now let’s put in the harmony notes. You want to enter them
in Layer 2.
- For
Windows, click the Layer 2 push button in the lower left corner of the
screen. For Macintosh, choose Layer 2 from the pop-up menu in the
lower left corner of the screen. You’ve just made Layer 2 the active layer
of every staff.
- Click
the Simple Entry Tool .
- Click
the half note icon in the Simple Entry palette (or press 6 on the numeric
keypad) to select a half note duration.
- Position
your cursor on the A below middle C on the first beat of measure 10 and
click. Do the same for the second half note in measure 10. You
can see that the stems are properly flipped. (Note you could also enter
these notes with the Simple Entry Caret with the same results).
- Press
-
-1 to return to Layer 1. The editing frame now displays
Layer 1, and Layer 2 is dimmed. --# (1-4)
is a keyboard shortcut used
to change the active layer while entering.
There are two special cases you should be aware of when working
with layers. There are times, often found in keyboard music,
when the second voice doesn’t begin until the middle of a measure
(below right). The solution is to Ctrl+click a note in the primary layer to select where you would like to begin entering a second voice, choose the new layer (in this case, layer 2), and use your computer keyboard (e.g. a letter key A-G or Enter) to begin entering the new voice. (When you do this, Finale automatically creates hidden placeholder rests to the left of the first note in the new layer behind the scenes).
The second problem you may encounter is when
the notes in each layer are an interval of a second apart, like this:
You need to offset one of them to avoid the
collision. One solution is simply to drag either note to one side when
you’re editing with the Speedy Entry Tool. (You can drag notes both vertically
and horizontally when you’re editing. If you want to make sure you don’t
inadvertently move the note sideways when you want to drag it up or down—or
vice versa—press the d key as you drag. Finale will constrain the cursor
to perfectly horizontal or vertical movements.)
Another solution is to let Finale's Automatic
Music Spacing feature work for you. From the Document menu, choose Document
Options, then select Music Spacing Options; make sure that Seconds and
Unisons are selected in the Avoid Collision Of section of the dialog box.
See Music Spacing for more information.
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