5 Essential Key Commands for Speedy Workflow in Logic Pro X's Score Editor

Logic Pro’s score editor is a powerful tool for preparing parts and scores for recording sessions, but it is its own beast and quite different from Sibelius or Finale (Which are in turn, quite different from each other).

The key to using it well is having helpful key commands, because darting back and forth in the score editor with a mouse is slower and less efficient. Some of the most useful are already assigned by default while some are not. Here are some of my favorites.

1. Select Similar Events and Select Equal Events

Need to change all the D#3s or all the D#? These two key commands allow you to select one D#3 or one D# and by simply pressing Shift-S or Shift-E, have them all ready to perform your change. 

2. Enharmonic Shift # and Enharmonic Shift ♭

Logic Pro does a pretty good job with sharps and flats depending on the key you have entered, but it still isn’t always going to have them the way a player wants so by pressing Shift-3 for sharp or shift-b for flat, you can quickly have them be what you want them to be.

3. Trim Note End To Selected Notes (Force Legato)

In Pic 1 you see a series of notes that when I played, I did not hold long enough. (See Pic 1)

Pic 1

I intended a two-measure two-note chord to connect to a one and a half measure chord. Well, there is already an assigned key command for Trim Note End To Following Notes but not one for this, so in the key commands window, I assign a key combo, in my case the F1 key because I use this so frequently. See the result in Pic 2.

Pic 2

(If you use Dashboard and some other OSX features that I do not, some of the F keys will not be available for use, so you will need to make other choices.)

4. Align Objects Vertically and Align Objects Horizontally

In Pic 3, look at my dynamic symbols. They are a hot mess. Fortunately there are these two key commands that are unassigned that will serve this purpose.

Pic 3

And the result is what you now see in Pic 4.

Pic 4

5. Attach Symbol Staccato, Select Same Subposition, Attach Symbol Accent

In Pic 5, notice that I have a bunch of short notes. They all should be staccato and the first note in each measure should be accented.

Pic 5

I need three key commands to do this and only one is assigned: Select Same Subposition, is assigned to Shift-P.

So I assign F4 to attach the staccato symbol and F5 for the accent. 

Now I:

1. Press Command-A to select all the notes and press F4. All the notes now have a staccato symbol.
2. I deselect all the notes and select the very first one and press Shift-P and all the downbeats are selected. (They must actually be at the exact same subpostion or you have to shift-select them.)
3. I press F5 and all the downbeats are accented.

Pic 6 now shows that I accomplished these tasks.

Pic 6

There are lots of treasures to be discovered in the key commands for the score editor. Other favorites include Paste Multiple at Original Position, force and defeat interpretation, syncopation, beam selected/unselected, etc. Good key command choices make the difference between working in Logic Pro X’s score editor efficient and more pleasurable versus just plodding along.

Get insider tips on Logic Pro's Score Editor here.