**Hi there:

I think Guitar Pro is a good tool for surf musicians.

What do you think? (If you know other nice editors suggest them)**

When you have to shoot ... shoot! Don't talk.
"Los Grainders" www.facebook.com/losgrainders
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JakeDobner
I disagree, unless you are tabbing the song. Learning guitar from tabs is detrimental to your development as a musician.

Unless... guitar pro has an option for you to read music instead of looking at tab. Learning to read and write music is quite healthy for a musician's development. I wish I could read music at a higher level than I can right now.

I agree in this point, but you can also use the classic notation to write and not tab and get familiar contact with signature tempos, and rythm forms, as well with the notes in pentragram.

Also I think it is good because is an easy way for begginers to play, people who are not so interested in reading music, just having fun..

and other interesting thing is that for example you can share your tunes with other people so they can play them if they are faraway.

When you have to shoot ... shoot! Don't talk.
"Los Grainders" www.facebook.com/losgrainders
"Planeta Reverb" www.facebook.com/planetareverb

Guitar Pro is WONDERFUL. I use it constantly, and tab out pretty much everything we do. I find it really helps when we're all learning a new song, because we can very quickly get the mechanics nailed down so we start smoothing it all out. I also find writing them out helps me know the song better (this is mostly true for cover songs).

There is a function of using just tab, just music signatures, or both. You can also add tracks, lay it out like a score, add percussion, add organs, etc. It's an incredibly helpful tool for those who learn how to use it.

I've been playing guitar for 20 years, and while I'm not even the best player that I know, I do ok. I can't read a note of music for guitar, but can for trumpet, so I'm no stranger to it. I don't think this program is harmful for one's development as a musicians at all. If anything, it can help with keeping time and understanding measures, because it requires that the measures be correctly counted out with respective notes. If it's not right, it turns red, and sounds wrong. It kind of forces you to count it all out with perfect precision.

Reading music is great, and if you want to take that task up, I say go for it, but it's hardly required to be a musician or to make music. If it sounds like music, it's music. Where you read it from a tab, or a piece of music, or picked it out of the air with your ear, it all sounds the same.

Music doesn't fit into a box quite so easily. If it's pleasing to the ear, it's music, regardless of where it comes from or how it gets there.

• Jamie
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Funny that this topic should come up...i mentioned it in my intro the other day as something that I had started to use more...

I can also find my way around guitar pro to tab out some stuff...

Here's a tip if you can get a hold of guitar pro this tabbing/notation software will load midi tracks and try to tab it...so, for a while there I was taking things like elton john from those tacky midi sites, stripping the parts down to say just the piano or melody or whatever and opening them up.

Voila! Instant tabbed piano parts...hahaha. Not always practical to play, but you can edit it into something recognizable and learn the basic parts...good for inspiring things that might not sound so guitary!

(it plays them so you can learn them and the tempo can be adjusted...also good for generating instant backing tracks (though they can sound a bit cheesy sometimes)...just strip away the parts you don't like or are going to play)

Guitar pro tabs from notation and visaversa at the same time. You can input easily from a mouse on a displayed fretboard.

It can play multiple parts...so good for working out good bass, rhythm and bass parts...also will clearly show the number of bars and such which is important for trying to write song specific drum parts.

So...it has a lot of uses and works really well. For one thing, it helps a lot in learning to read music particularly the rhythms. As it plays back, you can hear if it is approaching something like the real thing (it will never sound like you are playing it)...so the difference between triplet quavers and straight quavers is pretty obvious.

It automatically shows what ever you tab in standard notation so learning the transition from or to TAB is easier.

The learning curve for the actual program is easy as well...very intuitive!

It also works well as a basic sequencer or midi playback program and editor.

However, with all such things it is a tool...don't give up playing the guitar for playing the guitar pro!

...

I understand the negative comments about TAB, it is limited, widely abused (people forget to listen), avoids some of the depth of how music works (things like keys and scales become abstract fret numbers) and the quality of most TAB available (especially the non-pro stuff on the 'net) is woefully wrong.

However, I can read music and studied it at uni, know perhaps too much theory. But TAB is important for the guitar due to the repetition of the notes. I have found that this has become more important with the way my "style" has developed.

Often I play with open strings within chords beyond the open position, small chord shapes that only work within certain string sets...often I play chords in positions to avoid some of the "out of tuneness" of say an open A major chord and I will often use forms that require the thumb over the top to play the bass note, some of the bar chord in the middle strings, and open strings above that doubling some of the chord tones creating a 12 string kind of effect. In standard notation, these things can be very messy and not explain how you are supposed to play all these notes at the same time.

Some easy examples of such chords...

---0---

---6---

---x---

This A major chord is always a good substitute for a straight A chord...not always easy to translate from notation. It is easy for the ear to interpret as an open A chord or some other combination of the same notes.

---0---

---5---

---0---
--(5)--

this A minor is a great sound...an added 2nd.

---0----0----0----0----0----

---2----6----5----4----2----sustain chord over bass riff!

---4----7----6----5----4-------4---4---4--

The above sequence is the chord run down I use for penetration...of course it could be notated traditionally, but this makes a lot more sense don't you think? Add to that, that the bass notes are fretted with the thumb, and a whole world of possibilities open up. Most importantly, it really opens up a window into how a player thinks and composers or arranges.

In surf music, trying to explain that a melody is played on one string rather than many are taught, in some kind of box or scale position can be vital for the tone, tremolo picking, etc

...

Anyway...some defense for TAB, even though I agree with most of the points expressed. Of the TABbing software, guitar pro has been the best I have come across. It can be a great tool to translate keyboard based theory ideas to the guitar (voice leading and such) and it can help with composing and sharing ideas as it is not just tab but midi audio as well.

There is a tendency now that it is widely available for it to really make for lazy new players. I am old enough to have had to learn from vinyl records myself, but listening to a lot of "karaoke guitar players" say on you Utube, they appear and sound as if they are playing by numbers. But the same can occur if reading from standard notation as well. Learning by ear is very important, but often the ear can lie and there are other ideas (like the simple examples above) that are not at all obvious from hearing it.

Unlike conventional written TAB, guitar pro includes the audio and the standard notation...will even transcribe from guitar to keyboard TAB and is easy to alter speed with a simple click of the mouse. Big ups for Gpro!

...

Some may have heard a demo track I made for my sustainer...it was just two guitar tracks...the rhythm vamp is is but not obvious and uses these chord forms...

-------------------0----0---

----7---9---11---9-----9--

----7---9---10---9-----9---

It may well sound like two guitars, the small forms on the middle strings I pluck with fingers, the last chord back strummed with the pick near the bridge. Only TAB really shows clearly the intention of such ideas and how easy they are. Often the ear is fooled by what people expect (standard chord shapes and techniques)...this is of course why so much TAB is so incredibly incorrect and misleading...

Of course...if I had done all that in guitar pro...you would have been able to see it in tab and notation and hear what it sounds like (the all important rhythm notation) and look a lot more impressive...and be able to email it across the world!

pete

1 Mahogany HSS squier strat with trick wiring and noiseless SD JB pups...

other 1 Baby blue telecaster with tremolo, Fender WR-HB and DIY sustainer...

amp...fender hotrod deluxe + 15" cab!

I have a Mac, and so I could use GarageBand, but I use GuitarPro (and most of what I do isn't even guitar). I don't do tab at all (partly because of a misspent youth taking college-level theory), and I still prefer GuitarPro.

Very useful when learning tunes, because I can separate the playing from the listening. Meaning, I can put in what I know into GuitarPro, and lsiten to it and figure out whether I've got it right or not.

It didn't cost a bundle, and I got both Windows and Mac versions, and it does what I need.

Icetech
some of us can't learn songs from hearing them (and it sucks) when i started a long time ago, i had a friend that could hear a song once and just play it.. made me nuts.. and i have tried everything to learn that..

Depending on what you're trying to figure out, it's a task that can be mastered. Start with a slow and uncomplicated tune and try to figure out the key first, then the melody. If necessary, do it note by note using an audio editor (e.g. Audacity) playing the current part (or even note) in a constant loop. Guess the pitch, hit the note on your guitar and compare it to the original. Then adjust up- or downwards until you've figured out the correct pitch (i.e. note) ... that's how everyone else does it. With time you'll get better (i.e. more precise) results faster, just don't give up when you don't get the ultra-fast line at the first attempt.

Greetings - the Fenderizer

P.S: I also say that you should use your ears. But I don't say that TABs are bad. Sometimes they let you achieve learning a song faster than having to figure it out all by yourself. The large amount of inaccurate TAB out on the Interweb makes using your ears essential. Even in this case, TAB can lead to towards the correct result.

they're coming to take me away, hahaaa ...

I'm one of those that appreciates the cool technology available today for aspiring guitarists. Back in the old days one had to hassle around with driving to lesson after costly lesson. And hopefully you had a decent instructor. Or if the student had a good ear they could learn by listening to records and trying to emulate what was being played. My dad always played by ear and could never even read music.

I'm not knocking taking lessons from a good instructor because nothing can replace them. But lessons, Guitar Pro, Tabs, learning by ear are all tools. Use the ones that suits your learning abilities the best.

So far I've done alright by using a combination Guitar Pro, tabs, and using a slower downer to learn by ear as well as playing along with the tune for practice. I took lessons for a couple of months but got bored quickly and didn't feel like I was making the progress I could have. I quit after buying GP.

Cats 'n' Strats, 'cause that's how I roll - I eat reverb for breakfast!

Fenderus Collecticus
Strat Blender Pot Modification HERE