fretboard diagrams

Hello Good People,

I am using Finale 2014. I am having a lot of trouble adding FRETBOARD DIAGRAMS to my scores. I do not understand why it is so painful. Creating a staff, putting in the notes, adding the lyrics and doing the page layout and all that is pretty straightforward. Why is it that when it comes to adding simple guitar FRETBOARD DIAGRAMS is like stepping into a hornet's nest? I have been at it for 4 days now and am about to smash my computor, burn my house down, and throw the scores into the Atlantic ocean.

I believe myself to be of average, normal, Caucasian intelligence.

What I need is as as follows:

1) I need to know how, what "clicks" to do in order to have 5 or 6 FRETBOARD DIAGRAMS WITHOUT THE NAME OF THE CHORD - ONLY THE DIAGRAMS - under the first staff of my score.

2) I need to be able to do this, one FRETBOARD DIAGRAM after another; I need to be able to edit, insert, establish, a new FRETBOARD DIAGRAM WITHOUT THE NEW FRETBOARD DIAGRAM CHANGING ALL THE EXISTING FRETBOARD DIAGRAMS. I want to be able to click "edit" when it says "edit". I want then to be able to "edit". Then I want to be able to "select" when it says "select". I then want the said, selected FRETBOARD DIAGRAM to appear on the page and be able to move it to where I would like it to be WITHOUT LET OR ADO.

Questions:

Do I or do I not click "generate"? What does this mean? Why should I have to click "generate" if I have already clicked "edit" and "select"? What does "unlock" mean, what does "unlock all" mean. I truly don't, at the moment, know what anything means as regards FRETBOARD DIAGRAMS in this Finale Program. I truly need to be talked to like an idiot, in plain, elementary English. Like, "1) Click, or double click or right click or left click or chick chick this. 2) The so and so window appears (does it appear? If not, why not? Like, What?)", and so forth and so on.

Thank you, good people out there if you can in any way enlighten me,

Keven

P.S

Is there anyone I can possible phone? I am in Birmingham, England.

If you're on a Mac, replace "right click" with "control + click"

1) Here's how you make the Chord name disappear.

Grab the chord tool
Go up to the menu and make sure that "Chord > Show Fretboards" is checked
Write in your chord on the staff you want the chord to appear, I'll use "G" for this example. Something like this should appear:
If you then highlight the handle of the chord and right click, it will bring up this menu and you will want to uncheck "Show Chord."
This is what will make the name of the chord disappear, but the fretboard stay. If you have multiple chords, you can highlight them all at once and do it with the same steps and it will make them all disappear.

For your second issue, it sounds like you are editing the fretboard. This is a little misleading in that what you are wanting to do requires you to edit the chord definition. Say you have two G chords. One you want to be open, the other you want to be barred. If you Edit the Fretboard, this will edit all of the G chords, but if you edit the Chord Definition like so, it will edit them one at a time so you can get this with minimal hassle.

Right click the handle of the chord you want to change and select "Edit Chord Definition..."
This will bring up the Chord Definition Box. DO NOT PRESS EDIT. Press "Select..." near "Fretboard"
This will bring you to the Fretboard Selection.
By either creating or selecting a chord in this box, you will then change the definition of that single chord rather than all of them.

Hope that helps!

1 comment