Finale 2011 includes three new music fonts: the Finale AlphaNotes font, the Finale Mallets font, and the Finale Percussion font. Today we’ll look at the Finale AlphaNotes font and demonstrate how to create music with AlphaNotes in Finale 2011.

Created for use with beginning music students, the Finale AlphaNotes font places note names inside noteheads. The easiest way to create notation with this new font is to use one of the templates included in Finale 2011. To do so, go to:

File menu> New > Document from Template > Education

From within the Education folder, select Finale AlphaNotes Notenames. 

As you enter notes on the resulting staff, and you will immediately see the new font in action.

Are you using solfège with your students?  Select Finale AlphaNotes Solfege from the Education folder listed above. Enter notes in a staff that appears in this template and they’ll automatically look like this:

In addition to the note name noteheads, we included some fun symbols as well…See if you can find these for yourself. You might even discover a few “Easter eggs.”

Have any questions or comments about these fonts, Finale 2011 or anything else?  Share them by clicking on the “Comments” button below.