Generate Finger Numbers

Command Location: Tools Menu

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

Manually using commands in the Notes Menu or with Keyboard Shortcuts

Automatically for a selection of notes using commands in the Notes Menu or with finger number Keyboard Shortcuts without 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 is an advanced feature in MidiIllustrator which 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 whole score.

Choose what to analyze

If a note range is selected in the score when the fingering analysis dialog is opened, MidiIllustrator will 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 allows you to set fingering for a particular melody or musical idea without having other notes influence MidiIllustrator's fingering calculations.

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

Options

Keep existing fingering and use it when calculating: Normally, existing finger numbers will be ignored in the calculation and will be updated as MidiIllustrator sees fit. With this option checked however, MidiIllustrator will use any existing fingering in the score as a guide to how you would like finger numbers assigned to remaining notes and these finger numbers will 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 will 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 will decide which hand to use when fingering a given staff based on the assigned instrument playing hand (Staff Manager). You can override this when 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 with the use of voices, it will normally assign both the left and right hands to finger lower 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 will result in better fingering, and increasing the result smoothing will address errors caused by insufficient depth of analysis. It's worth experimenting with 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 will be saved when you close the dialog. These saved settings will also be applied when automatically assigning finger numbers for a selection of notes using commands in the Notes Menu or with 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 with the thumb (1) on each hand through to the pinky (5).

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 with Keyboard Shortcuts. Select the range of notes you wish 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.