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  • Home
  • About Me
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    • Chamber Music
    • Concert Band
    • Pep Band
    • Tonal Fluency
  • Theme Songs
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    • Engraving/Preparation
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  • Finale 101
  • Links
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Articles
    • Everything In Its Right Place
    • a tempo vs. Tempo I
    • Placing Fermatas over Whole Rests
    • Introduction to Linked Parts
    • Transpose Percussion Notes
    • Learn As Much As You Can...
    • A Place for Everything, and Everything In Its Place
    • Combined Staff in Score --> Separate Parts
    • Tritone and P4ths
    • Large and In Charge
    • JW Copy Part Layout
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Transpose Percussion Notes

 Transpose Percussion Notes is easily my favorite features of Finale. Apparently it has been there since 2011, maybe even 2008, but I didn't discover it until about a year ago. Holy smokes! Talk about added efficiency as well as improved parts. That's right...percussion layout (which had always been super cumbersome and a honestly a pain in the arse) are now much easier to manage. They will take less time to create and will look and sound better. It's a win-win!

In order for these to work, you do need to spend a little time learning about percussion maps.
My friend, CJ Garcia, has already made a GREAT blog post about how to create your own custom percussion map and I HIGHLY recommend taking the time to learn his system. It will save you literally hours in future projects and your parts will look better and will also playback correctly (probably).
https://www.finalemusic.com/blog/setting-custom-percussion-staff-finale/

Anyway...let's assume you have set up your percussion map (or even that you're using one of the many built in ones) and are writing a simple drum set part to accompany a choir (since that's what I'm doing right at this moment when I was struck with the urge to make this). Here's where you are right now...

Picture

But then you realize that part was supposed to switch from ride cymbal to hi-hat at measure 29. What do you do?

Option 1 - Delete it all and re-enter everything
Option 2 - Speedy Entry and then drag each ride cymbal note down to the hi-hat space

OPTION 3
TRANSPOSE PERCUSSION NOTES


Never fear, what once was a time-consuming and aggravating correction is now SUPER quick and easy to fix.

1. Using the Selection Tool, highlight the measures which contain the notes to be changed.

Picture
2. Utilities --> Transpose Percussion Notes
Picture

The "Transpose Percussion Note Types" window will open

Picture

Select Ride Cymbal, then use the drop down menu to select Hi-Hat Closed.

Picture

Press OK

Picture

And there you go. Seriously. How easy was THAT?

Transpose Percussion Notes has changed my life. I no longer dread having to make percussion parts and my percussionists are reaping the benefits of better parts, too.



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  • Home
  • About Me
  • Buy My Music
    • Chamber Music
    • Concert Band
    • Pep Band
    • Tonal Fluency
  • Theme Songs
  • Composer's Secret Weapon
    • Engraving/Preparation
    • Orchestration
    • Proofing & Consulting
  • Finale 101
  • Links
  • Contact
  • Blog
  • Articles
    • Everything In Its Right Place
    • a tempo vs. Tempo I
    • Placing Fermatas over Whole Rests
    • Introduction to Linked Parts
    • Transpose Percussion Notes
    • Learn As Much As You Can...
    • A Place for Everything, and Everything In Its Place
    • Combined Staff in Score --> Separate Parts
    • Tritone and P4ths
    • Large and In Charge
    • JW Copy Part Layout