Key Signature
How to get there
- Choose the Key Signature tool
.
- Double-click the measure at which you want the key to change.
What it does
This dialog box contains a scrolling list of key signatures from which you can select a key (to change keys in your document, or for a variety of other purposes). You can also specify whether or not you want the notes transposed into the new key, and what range of measures you want to affect. PrintMusic will default to the key of C Major in the few cases where PrintMusic needs a default setting.
- [Scrolling key display]. Click the top scroll bar arrow to add sharps (or subtract flats) from the displayed key signature. Click the bottom arrow to add flats (or subtract sharps). As you scroll through the Circle of Fifths, the key name is identified in the lower-left corner (“C major,” and so on).
- Major Key • Minor Key. Using this popup menu, you can specify which key system you want to use. PrintMusic treats major and minor keys differently—notably in its treatment of accidentals (when transcribing a performance) and in handling chord symbols, where the root of the A minor scale, for example, is called scale degree 1 (instead of scale degree 6, as it would be in the key of C major). Note that files created in Finale 2014 may contain staves without a key signature; in this case, the italicized word "Keyless" is displayed.
- Measure Region: Measure ___ Through ___ • Measure ___ Through End of Piece • Measure ___ To Next Key Change. Using these controls, specify what range of measures you want to affect with this key change. Click Measure ___ Through ___ if you want the new key to affect all measures up to (and including) a later measure. If you want the new key to remain in force from the measure you clicked to the end of the piece, click the middle option. If you want the new key until the next measure of a different key, click the lower option.
In all of the text boxes, PrintMusic proposes the number of the measure you originally clicked through the end of the piece; in other words, if you click OK without changing any numbers, the key changes through the end of the piece from the one you clicked.
- Transpose Notes: Up • Down. If you select this option, PrintMusic will transpose any existing notes (and chord symbols) in the score into the new key, in the direction you select from the popup menu.
- Hold Notes to Original Pitches: Chromatically • Enharmonically. Click this option if you want the pitches to remain the same as they were before you changed the key—in other words, you’re just changing the key signature without affecting the existing notes at all. If you choose Chromatically, the notes maintain their original spelling. If you choose Enharmonically, the existing notes will be re-notated according to the new key. A G
in the key of E will become an A
in the key of E.)
- Hold Notes to Same Staff Lines (Modally). Click this option if you want the music to remain modal—in other words, if you want each note to remain on the same line or space without adding any accidentals. An F in the key of C will become an F in the key of D, because there’s an F in the key signature—but no new accidental will appear.
- OK • Cancel. Click OK (or press RETURN) to confirm your choice of new key and return to the score, where the key changes according to your specifications. Click Cancel to return to the score without changing the key.
