Enharmonics for transposing instruments

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Tom Skublics Posted March 03, 2017 17:12

Hi. Latest Finale and Windows 10.

Concert key is B major. So Finale correctly puts the alto sax in Ab.

I have some D naturals in the score and considering the harmony, they can't be C double sharps.

This gives the alto sax Cb, but this makes the part much harder to read than if B naturals were notated.

When I change enharmonically (speedy edit '9') the Cb is changed to a Dbbb.

How can I make it a B nat and still keep the D nat in the score?

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Tom Skublics Posted March 03, 2017 17:23

BTW the composer wants a concert score.

There must be a way around this....my clarinet also looking at a bar where three notes in a row are Bb, Bbb, Bb.

Surely I can make the Bbb an A natural somehow?

Thank you.

Tom Skublics Posted March 03, 2017 17:26

Sorry....never mind that last comment. Even the score looks dumb unless I use F double sharp for the clarinet in this instance.

Tom Skublics Posted March 03, 2017 18:34

OK...this "stumbled upon" sequence of commands creates what I want.

1. Change enharmonic spelling to "favor sharps".

2. Respell notes (in the appropriate bar) in the part.

3. Go to the score and enharmonically (using Speedy '9') change the notes back to what is desired.

4. Go back to the part and, lo and behold, "speedy 9" changes them to the desired notation without changing the score.

So some software switch or flag has been altered for me to get what I want using this sequence (sorry, I used to be a software design engineer and yes now I'm a musician at 1/3 the salary and loving it)

Tom Skublics Posted March 28, 2023 20:35

I just encountered this problem again. And I was going to post a question and accidently found my own post from 6 years ago!

My workaround (above) didn't quite work until I added one final step.

Step 5. After changing the part with "speedy 9", select the measure and "Respell notes". Voila: the score shows D natural so the composer is happy. The part shows B natural so the player is happy.

Lenovo ThinkPad

Finale 27.3.0.137

Tom Skublics Posted March 28, 2023 20:45

Actually the extra "speedy 9" portion of step 5 is not needed. So step 4 can be replaced with

4. In the part, select the measure and "Respell notes".

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