Need to have a sax player switch, mid-song, to clarinet?

The Change Instrument Utility in Finale 2012 makes instrument doubling fast and easy. Simply select the region where the doubling occurs, go to the Utilities menu and select Change Instrument… Once you specify what instrument will play in the selected region, Finale will automatically change the playback sound, transposition, and key signature.

But what if you don’t use key signatures in your scores (a practice popular in film and atonal music)?

Finale 2012’s ScoreManager has you covered! Follow the same steps above, then open the ScoreManager from the Window Menu and expand the instrument so you can see the change.

Click on the new instrument and, from the Transposition drop down menu, choose Other:

Then specify Chromatic Transposition, choose the correct instrument transposition, and click OK.

If you’re not already using the keystroke shortcuts to access the ScoreManager, you might want to try them. For Windows users, it’s Control+K, for Mac users, it’s Command+K.

Please let us know how ScoreManager and the Change Instrument Utility are working for you by clicking on “Comments” below.