Lyrics menu

How to get there

Choose the Lyrics tool . The Lyrics menu appears.

What it does

The Lyrics menu contains all the commands you’ll need to create and edit lyrics, distribute the text in the score, adjust the positions of individual syllables, draw word extensions for syllables that are sustained, and so on.

You can have as many sets of lyrics as you want—up to 512 of each of Finale’s three lyric types: Verse, Chorus, and Section. There’s no technical distinction between these three types—the lyrics you enter as a Verse can be used in the chorus of your song, and vice versa. They’re only there to help you keep your lyrics straight, and to make it easy to change the font or style for a large chunk of lyrics at once (you can specify a different font for Verses, Choruses, and Sections in the Document Options - Fonts dialog box).

  • Lyrics Window. Choose this command to enter the Lyrics window, Finale’s lyric text processor. If you have copied lyrics from an external word processor, press CTRL+V here to paste them. Otherwise, you can create lyrics from scratch; just type them in, being sure to insert a hyphen between syllables. (Finale recognizes a space, hyphen, or carriage return as the end of a syllable.)
  • Lyric Window Options. Choose this command to open the Lyric Windows Options dialog box, where you can choose how editing syllables in the Lyrics Window shifts lyrics in the score.
  • Adjust Syllables. This command lets you move an individual syllable anywhere you want it. Click the staff above a syllable; two handles appear. Click a handle to select its syllable; SHIFT-click to select additional syllables attached to the same note. Drag a lower handle to move its syllable (or all selected syllables) to a new position; press BACKSPACE to restore a selected syllable to its original position. To remove a selected syllable (or all selected syllables) from the score, press DELETE. You can also use Adjust Syllables in conjunction with the alignment and justification commands. Click the upper handle to set alignment and justification. To select this command, you can also click the icon in the Lyrics window.
  • Click Assignment. After you’ve typed lyrics into the Lyrics window, choose Lyrics > Click Assignment, then click to the left of the first syllable you would like to enter. Click a note to enter the syllable. The next syllable is highlighted in the Lyrics window, indicating the syllable next to be click-assigned (SHIFT+click to assign the syllable to voice 2). If you CTRL+click a note, Finale zips through your entire set of lyrics, intelligently distributing them to the notes in the score skipping rests and tied notes, as well as notes in different layers and voice two, for as many notes as there are syllables. (Click Assignment will stop at default whole rests.) To select this command, you can also click the button in the Lyrics window.
  • Clone Lyric. Use this command when you want to copy the lyrics from one staff (the “source” staff) to another (the “target” staff). This technique, however, only copies one set of lyrics at a time—either the Verse, Chorus, or Section currently specified by the Specify Current Lyric command, or the last lyric you edited. After choosing this command, select the measures containing the source lyrics by clicking, SHIFT-clicking, the same techniques you use with the Selection tool. Once the source measures are selected, drag the first selected measure so that it’s superimposed on the first target measure. (If the target measure isn’t visible in the same screen, scroll so that you can see it, then CTRL+SHIFT-click it.) Finale copies the lyrics from the source measures to the target measures. Bear in mind that only notes that fall on the same beats as those in the source measures will receive syllables. (Note, too, that the vertical positions of the baseline-positioning triangles will be the same in the target staff as they were in the source staff.) To select this command, you can also click the icon in the Lyrics window.
  • Edit Word Extensions. A Word Extension is the underline following a syllable sustained beyond the note to which it’s attached. In new documents, or documents that do not contain lyrics created before Finale 2004, these lines are generated automatically as you type lyrics into the score. To edit a Word Extension, choose this command and click in the staff above the syllable in question. A square handle appears. Drag it to the right as far as you want to draw the Word Extension underline. To remove the Word Extension, click its handle and press DELETE. You can edit the default appearance of word extensions for your document in the Word Extensions dialog box. To select this command, you can also click the icon in the Lyrics window.
  • Shift Lyrics. When you choose this command, Finale displays the Shift Lyrics dialog box, where you can specify the direction in which you want all the syllables shifted. To select this command, you can also click the icon in the Lyrics window.
  • Noteman says: View the Using the positioning triangles QuickStart Video for a demonstration of how to use the positioning triangles.

  • Type Into Score. Instead of typing lyrics into the Lyrics window separately, you can enter them directly into the music so that you know at all times where you are relative to the melody. To do so, first specify the lyric type and number for the lyrics you intend to create (by choosing Specify Current Lyric or using the Lyrics window). Choose Type Into Score or click in the Lyrics window. A set of four positioning triangles appears at the left edge of the screen. These control the baselineAn imaginary line used to align the bottom edge of font characters. Finale displays arrows that control the baseline positioning for lyrics and chords. of the lyrics (against which the bottom edges of the words line up).

    Click on the staff at the position of the first melody note. Don't click the notehead - instead, click in the staff lines. A small blinking cursor - the insertion point - appears beneath the staff where you clicked. Type the lyrics normally; each time you type a space or a hyphen, Finale automatically moves the insertion point to the next note in preparation to enter the next syllable. As you type, Finale automatically scrolls the music so you always know where you are.

    If you make a mistake, just BACKSPACE over it by pressing the BACKSPACE key. To change a word you've already typed, click in the staff lines above it so that it's highlighted, then type its replacement. If you encounter a melismatic passage, where one syllable is sustained through several melody notes, skip past each sustained note by pressing SPACEBAR.

    Note that as you type, Finale stores each syllable in the Lyrics window - the Lyrics tool's text processor. It's important to understand that the Lyrics window and the lyrics in the score are dynamically linked. If you change a syllable in the Lyrics window, the syllable instantly changes in the score - and vice versa.

  • Alignment. Use this submenu to set the horizontal position of your lyrics on a syllable by syllable basis. See Alignment submenu.
  • Justification. Use this submenu to justify the selected syllables relative to each other. See Justification submenu.
  • Specify Current Lyric. Choose this command to display the Specify Current Lyric dialog box, where you can specify whether you want to edit, Type Into Score, Clone, or Click-Assign a Verse, Chorus, or Section. In the text box, you can also specify by number which Verse, Chorus, or Section you want to manipulate. When the current lyric is changed in the Specify Current Lyric dialog box it is also changed in the Lyrics window (and vise versa).

    You can also switch one lyric type to another in the Lyrics window; for example, if you've just used Click Assignment to place Verse lyrics in the score, but you now want to use the Lyrics window to enter the chorus, choose Chorus from the Lyric drop-down list.

  • Adjust Baselines. Choose this command to display the Adjust Baselines dialog box, where you can specify the exact vertical location for the baseline of each lyric type and number (the invisible line against which the bottoms of the words align).
  • Export Lyrics. Choose this command to open the Export Lyrics dialog box, where you can extract your lyrics and save them as a text file.
  • Auto-Number. Use this submenu to add automatic consecutive numbering to verses, sections, or choruses in the score as they are added. See Auto-Number submenu.
  • Lyric Options. Choose this command to display Document Options - Lyrics where you can specify alignment, spacing and line thickness options as well as settings for hyphens and word extensions.

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