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The Finale AlphaNotes Font

by Justin Phillips 17. June 2010 05:25

Finale 2011 includes three new music fonts: the Finale AlphaNotes font, the Finale Mallets font, and the Finale Percussion font. Today we’ll look at the Finale AlphaNotes font and demonstrate how to create music with AlphaNotes in Finale 2011.

Created for use with beginning music students, the Finale AlphaNotes font places note names inside noteheads. The easiest way to create notation with this new font is to use one of the templates included in Finale 2011. To do so, go to:

File menu> New > Document from Template > Education

From within the Education folder, select Finale AlphaNotes Notenames.

As you enter notes on the resulting staff, and you will immediately see the new font in action.

Are you using solfège with your students? Select Finale AlphaNotes Solfege from the Education folder listed above. Enter notes in a staff that appears in this template and they’ll automatically look like this:

In addition to the note name noteheads, we included some fun symbols as well…See if you can find these for yourself. You might even discover a few “Easter eggs.”

Have any questions or comments about these fonts, Finale 2011 or anything else? Share them by clicking on the “Comments” button below.

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Tags: notes, noteheads, finale, music notation, smiley faces

Justin Phillips

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Comments

6/4/2010 4:35:49 AM #

If we teach moveable-do solfege, will Finale be able to deduce the key we are using and adjust the letters in the noteheads accordingly? i.e. If a song is in the key of F, will it show that F is "do"?

Sandra

6/4/2010 5:43:37 PM #

Hi Sandra,

Yes! If you enter an F in the key of F, it will automatically add Do to F when the note is added. Also, if you transpose, Finale will adjust accordingly as well.

-Justin

justin w. phillips

6/4/2010 7:55:40 PM #

Justin,

Either you are psychic or you noticed my problems with the AlphaNotes font in my review I did last week of Finale 2011.

www.musicedmagic.com/.../...n-software-review.html

Thanks for mentioning the template thing (I don't remember seeing that in any of the online help files) but could you also do a tip on how to change only a few note heads to AlphaNotes instead of the entire document? That is where I am totally lost...

Thanks,
Chad Criswell

Chad Criswell

6/4/2010 9:06:06 PM #

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6/4/2010 10:32:12 PM #

Hi Chad,

You can add them to a few notes by adding the Alpha Notes Staff Style:

1) Select the Staff Tool
2) With the Staff Tool, select the part of the measure you wish to change
3) Right-click on the measure and choose 'AlphaNotes: Note Names"
4) Right-click on the staff style indicator and choose 'Edit'
5) Under Independent Elements, click Select by NoteHead font. Change to Finale AlphaNotes.

Does that work a bit better for you?

-Justin

justin w. phillips

6/10/2010 8:33:09 PM #

I'm using Apple OS X 10.6.4; Finale 2011
My right clicks do not yield the indications you have listed. In fact, the whole installation this time around has been kind of freaky! i'm still uncertain whether or not everything is in proper places for the proper results you have listed.
Thanks, Michael

Michael

6/13/2010 11:12:11 AM #

Hi Michael,

If you go to File > New > Document with Setup Wizard, are you able to create a new document? Also, are you able to locate the templates if you go to File > New > Document from Template?

-Justin

justin w. phillips

6/20/2010 12:20:21 PM #

Yes! Thanks to many users and various sites and comment areas amongst the Finale community I've been able to determine where my problem occurred. In your instructions for installing 2011 I discovered that I had mistakenly setup my folder preferences incorrectly and needlessly. I also solved a large part of my problem with GPO 4 and have learned how to activate it through the Wizard.
I tried un-installing and re-installing several times, also! It was pretty amusing!
Everyone would have wondered what I was trying to do!
Thanks for being there!
Michael

Michael

6/25/2010 5:23:32 PM #

Hi Michael,

Glad you were able to get up and running!

Have a great week,

-Justin

justin w. phillips

7/8/2010 1:00:02 PM #

A comment about the alpha note font: I don't like how the staff line shows through the open portion of the note. With the letter, it looks pretty sloppy. Can the font be altered to have it as a solid white center behind the notehead?

I would play with it myself, but I can't find the font! Where is it on my windows XP system?

Mike Rosen

7/10/2010 10:57:04 AM #

Hi Mike,

I can put that forth as a request to our development team.

The font will be located in C:\WINDOWS\Fonts under Finale AlphaNotes.

-Justin

justin w. phillips

8/7/2010 3:16:32 AM #

I am having difficulty getting the Alpha Notes to work in any way I have tried it. When I choose AlphaNotes notenames, what shows up is a series of symbols, sharps, tildas, etc, as the note shapes instead of the note names. When I try the solfege, then it seems to be correct. However, that is not what I want at this time. I am using Windows Vista. Can you help? I have only tried changing an existing score into the alpha notes, and not for a new score. I will try that, but I really don't want to re-enter this score. Thanks!

Shelley

Shelley Houser

8/12/2010 4:52:54 PM #

Hi Shelley,

Try these steps:

1) Select the Staff Tool
2) With the Staff Tool, select the part of the measure you wish to change
3) Right-click on the measure and choose 'AlphaNotes: Note Names"
4) Right-click on the staff style indicator and choose 'Edit'
5) Under Independent Elements, click Select by NoteHead font. Change to Finale AlphaNotes.

Do they display correctly now? If not, I would suggest contacting our support team at the link below, and they should be able to sort this out for you.

http://makemusic.custhelp.com/app/ask

-Justin

justin w. phillips

9/12/2010 8:13:20 AM #

This is a great new feature. What I am looking to do is mix note head fonts in the same measure. For example you have the first quarter note as a c AlphaNote but then repeated c's and/or stepping notes without letters in them. Is there a way to have just 1 note (or more) per measure as AlphaNotes?

Rebekah Maxner

9/12/2010 9:38:07 AM #

Hi Rebekah,

You bet. From within Finale’s Special Tools you can use the Note Shape Tool to turn individual note heads into any character from any font, including the Alpha Notes font.

If you run into difficulty, please feel free to contact our support staff, who can be reached at http://www.smartmusic.com/Support/Default.aspx

Scott at MakeMusic

Scott Yoho

9/12/2010 9:43:31 AM #

That is it! That works exactly as I want. Very nice feature.

Rebekah Maxner

9/12/2010 9:45:57 AM #

Hi Rebekah,

Excellent! Glad to hear it!

Best wishes,

Scott at MakeMusic

Scott Yoho

12/13/2010 10:32:16 PM #