The other cute challenge with having multiple chord diagrams is Finale will always put the first one into your score, even if you're working on a line that has nothing to do with that instrument, so you often have to open up every single chord for a different instrument and select the appropriate diagram you've already created.įor example, I always do my ukulele stuff first, then I have to go in and add the baritone chords one at a time with the alternate fingerings for the same chords. I normally edit my fretboard diagrams as one of the last (and most aggravatingly time consuming) steps in writing. Also know if you have multiple fretted instruments on the same score, you have to be very careful when doing any type of mass editing (like transposing for example) because it will not necessarily pick the right chord charts to use.

And they're all in the same dialog box which is a blessing and a curse. I do lots with multiple types of fretted instruments and when I open my select dialog box up, I have to keep them for baritone, ukulele, guitar, mandolin, banjo, and a couple other weird tunings. Be aware that every time you update Finale, all those deleted guitar chords will be back. If you're working in ukulele exclusively, you can delete all the guitar shapes and 'edit' the chords that are there until you create the ones you want for ukulele. When you add a chord in your score, if you want anything other than standard guitar tuning chord diagrams, you'll need to double click on the chord diagram, then in the chord definition dialog box click 'select,' and you'll find all the possible shapes Finale thinks would work for the given chord - and many of them will be wrong - but your ukulele chords should be there. Loading your chord library should add those diagrams into the options of pre-made chord charts, but it will most likely put them after the guitar chords. (Sorry, sour grapes here.) Maybe they just want us to be experts in all non-guitar fretboard shapes and to prove it over and over. I'm not sure if Finale knows there are any other fretted instruments other than guitar on this planet. The chord charts it defaults to will always be aggressively guitar-ish even if you only use four strings. Hi Florence: You aren't missing anything. They just can't (won't?) understand reentrant tuning since it's not on their guitar, and they've already cashed the check. For those of you newer to ukulele arrangements, that fourth High G string is really only used for strumming, but I continue to see guitar arrangers (being published by prominent music publishing houses) using the ukulele's high fourth string as a replacement for notes that should be appearing on the second string. I hope they catch on soon.įYI: I always use 'Low G' tuning for my ukulele tablature so when you drag and drop from a line of standard notation, it won't put notes on the fourth string (unless of course you have notes below Middle C, which you shouldn't if your band is using High G ukuleles). I use the same blank over and over because Finale is just not prepared for a world where ukulele and tablature are a thing. Make sure the instrument box says Ukulele and then click 'Edit Instruments'Īt the bottom, the string pitches for High G ukulele are Then (these are Macintosh directions):īottom right, next to Notation style: Tablature, click 'Settings' To fix:Īdd a ukulele tablature to your score. Band: Some iterations of Finale had the tuning wrong for ukulele.

Ukulele tab notes