Tapping a tempo

Recording a tempo with Finale using a MIDI device or even your computer keyboard is as easy as waving a baton. You can record, or “conduct,” a tempo as you listen to the score to define precise tempo adjustments using TempoTap.

Let’s use the Tutorial 6 file to demonstrate TempoTap.

1. From the View menu, choose Studio View. Notice the extra staff at the top. This is the TempoTap staff. It is only (and always) visible in Studio View. This staff shows you the beats you’ll be tapping.
2. Click the HyperScribe Tool  .
3. Click the first measure of the TempoTap staff. You are now ready to begin tapping the tempo. Unlike HyperScribe, Finale always begins recording your tempo on the first signal. (In the future, note that you can begin recording a tempo at any measure).

To prepare for recording a tempo, consider counting off a measure or two, stopping short of pressing the spacebar, before recording the first beat.

4. Tap the tempo on your computer keyboard’s spacebar, increasing or decreasing the tempo as desired. The scroll bar advances with the music.
5. Stop tapping when you are finished recording the desired measures, then click the score. When a message appears, click OK. Finale assigns the most recent recorded tempo to all measures following the region up to the next tempo change.
6. Click the play button in the Playback Controls to review playback.

You can record with additional precision by editing the note durations in the TempoTap staff. By default, the staff is filled with notes equalling the value of the main beat. If you want to specify a rallentando passage, for example, which slows drastically in a short amount of time, you may want to tap eighth notes instead of quarter notes to indicate the gradual change in tempo for the duration of the passage. To do so, use the Simple or Speedy Entry Tool to enter eighth notes for that region in TempoTap staff.

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