Hiding Staves for Pre-Staff Music/Hand Position Graphics

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Victoria Guadagno Edited March 18, 2018 06:50

-1

Two questions:

I write music for young beginners who start pre-staff. I am deciding between Finale (right now I only have the free version) and Sibelius (haven't tried yet).
I want my compositions to show without staves -- just with different value notes ascending and descending, lyrics, and finger numbers as in most primer books.

1) Can I compose my music on staff, and then hide staves before printing? Although I only have the free version, my searching has not shown me this is possible with the full version either without problematic workarounds. Hopefully, I'm incorrect.

2) Are there graphics of some kind available to insert on top to show the piano keys and indicate a hand position for the piece with finger numbers showing on keys? Again, this is standard in primer books. Or can I insert my own graphics (that would help as I would like to include artwork) Just not sure how to create my own and if this program can support it. Thank you!

I have an Intel Core i7-6700K CPU@4.00 GHz 4.)) GHz 16 GB RAM, 54 bit OS

2 comments

Date Votes

PETER THOMSEN Posted March 18, 2018 10:25

1) This is possible with Finale.

With the Staff Tool you can control, what items that are displayed in the staff.

You can choose to, not display staff-lines, clefs, key signatures &c.

A. Finale has a Graphics Tool.

With the Graphics Tool you can take a graphic, and insert the file in a Finale document.

However, there are some limitations; Finale does not support all graphic formats.

You can place Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files, TIFF (TIF) files, JPEGs, PDFs, PNGs, BMPs, and GIFs for use within Finale.

B. Finale has a “built-in” drawing program, the Shape Designer, that lets you create your own graphics.

NB:

It is a so called drawing program, not a painting program.

All graphics created in the Shape Designer are vector graphics.

Finale comes with a few ready made Shape Designer graphics, but you can also create your own shapes.

The attached graphic shows a small example of shapes created in the Shape Designer.

In this example the graphics are created as an equivalent to guitar fretboard diagrams.

Each chord symbol is shown with a keyboard diagram:

MIKE ROSEN Edited March 18, 2018 16:03

#1 is easy. Yes, you can do it with the full Finale, but not with the free version.

I did a quick look for the fingering graphics, and didn't find them. But I'm sure they are out there, somewhere! If you can create your own, you could use them in Finale.

I found a hand in Wingdings 2, and flipped it in Pages. You could add the numbers as needed, or, take the time to create a library of images.

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