Stemless notes

Music with stemless notes (noteheads only) appears in plainchant, recitative, and some hymn scores. In Finale, the stems can be hidden either globally or on a note-by-note basis. Note that you can apply stem settings from the Staff Attributes dialog box to regions of your document using Staff styles.

To create stemless notes globally

1. Choose Document > Document Options > Stems. The Stem Options dialog box appears.
2. Enter zero (0) in both the Normal and Shortened Stem Length boxes. Click OK (or press ENTER). No stems appear anywhere in the document.

To create individual stemless notes

1. Choose the Special Tools tool , and click the measure in question.
2. Choose the Custom Stem Tool . A handle appears on each note.
3. Double-click the handle of the desired note. The Shape Selection dialog box appears.
4. Click Create. The Shape Designer appears.
5. Click OK, then Select (or press ENTER twice). In effect, you’ve selected a stem that consists of nothing.

To restore the original stem, click the modified note’s handle and press DELETE. If you have several measures requiring stemless notes, you can copy the “no-stem” information onto other notes; see Stems—To remove custom stemming from a region and Stems—To copy custom stemming to other measures.

See also:

Headless notes