Hi All,
New to JustinGuitar Community, in fact this is my first post.
Also, new to guitar.
Looking for opinions on using Guitar-Pro software as a learning tool. I understand that itās primary function is for creating tabs/music, however, it does appear to have features that would be beneficial to learning as well.
Does it offer anything that is not available at JG or on the internet for free?
Itās a tab reading and writing program, just like Tux guitar. Tux is free. You can also use Songsterr or ultimate guitar for tabs.
You can download the tabs to edit them or slow them down to play along. You can learn a lot through playing that way
Thanks, Mutant for the info, much appreciated.
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I use guitar pro. Itās pretty good, reasonably cheap. As well as writing tabs, it can play them back, you can play along, change speed, edit, etc. Justin has a discount code in one of his lessons.
UG is a better resource for song tabs.
Pretty sure GP has a free trial to test it out.
Hi jkahn, thank you for the reply.
I am having trouble trying to figure out how to download the tabs to use in a program such as TuxGuitar?
Thanks,
Chief14
Hi Chief, I have no idea how to use Tux guitar. All these programs are a bit complicated, maybe stick with Justinās lessons and ultimate guitar websites?
You can download those when you have a paying account on UG. Just take the āproā version with the highest rating and download that tab. You cant download āofficialsā, created by the UG team 
As for Gpro:
I started with Songster, but the app version does not have all the feature of the monthly paying web app-plan.
The UG app has all the same feature as the website, but it sucks
A while ago a bought Gpro and it just works great for doing practice work and it has a nice interface to.
and Guitar Pro is a great tool for transcribing.
Tuxguitar is also good (and free) but not quite as slick and compatibility with guitar pro is sometimes an issue.
Cheers,
Keith
On the songsterr website you can download them for free if you have an account. When youāre logged in you can press edit tab and download it.
+1 Guitar Pro for transcribing. The learning curve is not bad. In addition to capturing the TAB electronically you can include timing info. Playback provides a way to validate the timing info and to play along with it. Iāve used it to TAB the rhythm part of a song so that I can play along/learn the lead part of the song. Being able to control the playback speed is a big help when doing this.
Do any of these convert notation to tab?
It depends what you mean by āconvertā.
These tools require the music to be entered into them, using their editor. The editor shows both conventional score and tab at the same time so, if you have the score, you can enter the notes on the stave.
However, you will also need to decide, to a degree, where any given note appears on the tab because notation does not tell you which string/fret to play the note on. When entering notes in standard notation you have the option to let Guitar Pro decide for you which string to play the entered note on, but this may not be ideal. You can adjust it later if you want.
EDIT: Iāve just checked and TuxGuitar will auto-place any note entered on the standard notation staff onto a string on the tab. You can then move it up to a higher string or down to a lower string, as on GP.
Cheers,
Keith
GuitarPro also gives you the option to input notes via a fretboard view and a piano roll. Great for guitar as you input the notes where you want to play them. Note value adjustment fairly simple using the plus and minus keys so you can adjust a lick or melody to get the timing you are after. Audio can be exported to mp3/wav, pdf and midi, possibly text as well but Iād have to check. Midi can be exported into a DAW to create backing tracks with VST instrument plugins. Used TUX for a bit but functionality seemed limited for my use. Only down side with UltimateGuitar is accuracy of the tabs as a lot is poorly transcribed. But at least with software like GPro7 you can correct those errors.
Assuming the tab is half decent it will help you to lean songs but if youāre new to the guitar I would stick with Justin through Grades 1 and 2. Get a solid foundation built and then expand your horizons. That is based on the experience of folk chasing tab and trying to learn things well beyond their playgrade. Its a sure way to crash and burn but hey what do I know.
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Thanks!
Do you run it under Wine? I see that Guitar Pro 8 has a platinum rating in the WineHQ Appdb.
I do. It mostly works very well.
I have an odd issue where it only works under Wayland and not X11 (which is odd because itās usually the other way around) but I think thatās my environment because a few other things donāt work either.
By the way, Iām actually using Codewavers Crossover Office, but itās basically Wine.
Cheers,
Keith
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With Guitar Pro, does anyone know if itās possible to write simple guitar tabs fast without transcribing rythm like those text based tabs on ultimate-guitar ?
Or maybe something like this.
No, you need to capture the rhythm information by specifying the note lengths and rests.
You could, of course, just stick a single note length down for everything for quick capture, and then tidy up afterwards.
But if you are after something that ignores the note lengths altogether, then GP doesnāt do that.
Cheers,
Keith
Ok, Iāll try that free Google spreadsheet when I want to make a really quick tab. And Guitar Pro for the other times.
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I use GP on my Mac but itād be handy to have it on my phone as well. Does the phone app have full functionality?