Most music is written with one of the standard key signatures. This traditional system is based on a scale of twelve half-steps and a harmonic scheme where a new accidental is added to the key signature with every advance around the circle of fifths.
In certain advanced and twentieth-century music schemes, however, these traditional key signature practices don’t apply. A piece may be based on the quarter-tone scale, for example, in which there are four chromatic steps from C to D. See To create a quarter-tone Scale or key signature for instructions. In Finale, you can create your own key signatures in any format, based on scales with any number of steps from one note to the next. Using the five dialog boxes accessed by the Nonstandard Key Signature dialog box, you can create up to 128 linear or nonlinear key signatures that are available at any time within the document.
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