Not pitchbend - I mean modwheel. Moving it in the ARIA player does change the volume, but setting it to zero by MIDI tool does nothing.

If it is just a single note I would use the (very technical) dialog box Edit Frame (in the Speedy Entry Tool), and de-select Playback for that note.

How to get to Edit Frame (Speedy Entry Tool):

Ctrl-click (Windows) or Option-click (Mac OS X) inside the staff / measure.

NB: You must be in the correct layer.

Hello,

How to mute several bars in a score?

I'm using finale 2012 on a mac 10.14 mojave

… I'm using finale 2012 on a mac 10.14 mojave …

Finale 2012 is not supported in Mojave (are you using Human Playback? - Expression Tool?).

You might consider upgrading Finale.

… How to mute several bars in a score? …

Not enough info.

Take a look in the MIDI/Audio menu.

At the top of the menu you have the menu items

Play Finale Through Audio Units

and

Play Finale Through MIDI

Which menu item has a check mark?

For several bars, set the notes to be muted to a separate layer and then mute the layer in the ScoreManager.

Setting the key velocity to zero did not mute for me either but setting it to 1 did. At least there was nothing audible on playback