Finger Numbers

Command Location: Tools Menu

Finger numbers can be assigned to notes and chords in one of three w ays:

Manually using commands in the Notes Menu or w ith Keyboard Shortcuts

Automatically for a selection of notes using commands in the Notes Menu or w ith finger number Keyboard Shortcuts w ithout the need to open the Fingering Analysis dialog Automatically for the entire score, a range of staves, or a note selection using the Fingering Analysis dialog

Once you have assigned finger numbers to notes several new features become available:

Finger numbers can be displayed in, alongside, above or below each note/chord in the score

Finger numbers can be displayed on each key during playback on the On-Screen Piano Keyboard

MidiIllustrator can show animated Performing Hands performing your score over the On-Screen Piano Keyboard

Automatic Fingering Analysis

Automatic Fingering Analysis is an advanced feature in MidiIllustrator w hich performs a customizable analysis of the notation in your scores and accordingly assigns finger numbers to each note and chord. Fingering analysis is customizable to help you assign the right finger numbers easily and quickly for a selection of notes or the w hole score.

See also: notes on Obtaining the Best Analysis Possible.

Choose what to analyze If a note range is selected in the score w hen the fingering analysis dialog is opened, MidiIllustrator w ill check the Current

selection only checkbox. In this case, finger numbers are assigned to selected notes in

the context of their position relative to one another and relative to other notes nearby in the score.

Ignore unselected notes when calculating:

With this option, finger numbers are

assigned to selected notes in the context of their position relative to one another but ignoring other notes surrounding the

selection. This allow s you to set fingering for a particular melody or musical idea w ithout having other notes influence MidiIllustrator's fingering calculations.

You can choose to analyze entire staves or the entire score. This w ill take some time as even a basic analysis is quite demanding on the average PC. See Advanced Settings below to configure you ow n kind of analysis.

Options Keep existing fingering and use it when

calculating: Normally, existing finger numbers w ill be ignored in the calculation and w ill be updated as MidiIllustrator sees fit.

With this option checked how ever,

MidiIllustrator w ill use any existing fingering in the score as a guide to how you w ould like finger numbers assigned to remaining notes and these finger numbers w ill not be

changed in the analysis. You might use this option having assigned a finger number to a single note in an arpeggio, for example, and MidiIllustrator w ill then assign finger numbers to the remaining notes in the arpeggio using the manually assigned finger as a starting point.

Choose an instrument fingering In the current version of MidiIllustrator, fingering analysis can be performed for keyboard instruments such as the piano.

MidiIllustrator w ill decide w hich hand to use w hen fingering a given staff based on the assigned instrument playing hand (Staff Manager). You can override this w hen using the finger analysis dialog using the Force Hand commands.

Assign separate hand fingering for upper/

lower voices: When MidiIllustrator finds more than one musical idea indicated in a staff w ith the use of voices, it w ill normally assign both the left and right hands to finger low er and upper voices accordingly. Uncheck this box to have a single hand notes across play multiple voices on each staff. Disabling this option may have consequences for Performing Hands making some multi-voice chord combinations unplayable.

Advanced Settings The Depth of analysis and Result Smoothing settings allow you to control the effort

MidiIllustrator applies to assigning finger numbers to a range of notes.

Warning! Changing advanced settings -especially Depth of analysis may dramatically

increase analysis time - so this option should be configured in the context of your PC processor speed.

Generally, deeper analysis w ill result in better fingering, and increasing the result smoothing w ill address errors caused by insufficient depth of analysis. It's w orth experimenting w ith different analysis settings on different notation selections, especially if you can allow extra time for the analysis to proceed.

Remember these advanced settings: Your settings w ill be saved w hen you close the dialog. These saved settings w ill also be applied w hen automatically assigning finger numbers for a selection of notes using commands in the Notes Menu or w ith Keyboard Shortcuts.

Restore Advanced Defaults: Restore the default settings for Depth of analysis and Result Smoothing.

Finger Numbers

Valid finger numbers are from 1 to 5, starting w ith the thumb (1) on each hand through to the pinky (5).

Obtaining the Best Analysis Possible

Since assigning finger numbers is a very subjective task, automatic generation of finger numbers for entire scores will inevitably include some unsuitable finger assignments.

There are many rules in the analysis which favours general rules and uses specific rules rarely. Sometimes, for example, you will see a finger roll incorrectly assigned to an arpeggio, or an awkward fingering for a 4 finger chord in order to make progress to the next note sequence easier. In some case a given fingering may simply suit one player more than another.

To get best results, using the following automatic fingering options in combination with your own manual fingering assignments is highly recommended:

Ignore unselected notes when calculating. Remember that fingering for a given sequence is calculated in the context of the surrounding notation. Sometimes you will get better results if you generate fingering for a sequence in isolation. You can also do this quickly for a selection of notes using the fingering keyboard shortcuts.

Keep existing fingering and use it when calculating. This is a quick way to get the fingering you want on a chord or arpeggio. Manually assign one or two finger numbers to a given sequence of selected notes

using commands in the Notes Menu or w ith Keyboard Shortcuts. Select the range of notes you w ish to assign finger numbers to automatically. Open the Automatic Fingering Analysis dialog and check the

Keep existing fingering and use it when calculating option. MidiIllustrator will use the manually assigned finger numbers when assigning fingering to the rest of the selection. Usually, manually assigning the first and/or last note in a chord or arpeggio will help

MidiIllustrator automatically assign the rest of the fingering to your requirements.

View the Help Contents Page. Visit the MidiIllustrator Website at http://

w w w .MidiIllustrator.com.

In document MidiIllustrator User Manual (Page 160-163)