Guitar Pro

BigBear
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 1:24 am

Scott-

Some of these guys are real Guitar Pro power users. I'm not. But I've wasted way too much time learning this software so I'll give you a less-than-satisfied users perspective.

Version 6 is prettier than version 5. I started with V5. Other than that, it is still an incredibly difficult piece of software (p.o.s. software?) to use. While it is not the only game in town it is clearly the Big Dog in that price bracket. And it is strongly aimed at guitarists. Chas is right on the money when he says that since Neil provides almost all lessons in Guitar Pro forman (.gpx) you almost have to own the thing.

It is terrible for inputing lyrics but it will do it. But it is great for showing guitar fingerings and the new chord generator is really useful. I actually let GP generate some of the odd chords in Neil's lessons and then print them to .pdf so I can add them to Neil's charts. Otherwise, if it's song I don't intend to play very often, I'll never remember the chord (Dmaj9 anyone?). Its a senior moment thing!

And you can find .gpx files all over the internet and download them. And they are really small files which is nice. I also use it for printing out the solos for songs that I don't need the whole song for. Obviously, GP files are only as good as the person that built the file. Some are great, some really stink.

So, like Chas says, download the free version and try it. But be aware that it may take you a very long time to actually learn to use it, maybe much longer than the trial period.

Good luck!

Cheers! :cheer:


AndyT
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 2:13 am

Don't mind Rick. He was born with a natural aversion to technology. LOL

Version 5 did have some problems with inputting lyrics, but version 6 has fixed it. Adding lyrics is now no more difficult than typing them in. It even has a couple of sweet little symbols that help you get the spacing just the way you want it.

The biggest problem people have with GP is that its mainly made for standard notation and if you don't read music, you miss out on a lot. However, reading music is not difficult and if you take a couple of hours, you can learn the basics.

GP handles things that many people don't even know exist, like an Anacrusis. (pickup bar) Its where the first measure has too few beats because it's a form of intro. Standard notation has a way to handle this and so does GP. Its actually such a full featured piece of software that the casual user will likely never use 90% of its capabilities.

Ultimately, its your decision to get it or not, but its so useful that I think any guitar player that really wants to play well and collect music should have it.

Rick's main complaint is that its not user friendly. Frankly, I think he's had one too many triple scotch's. Its designed around either the TAB staff or the Grand Staff. If you read either one, you should really have no trouble.

Like Chas said, get the demo and use it. Its free and you will discover how user friendly it really is. And if you have questions, feel free to ask. Chas or I or some others here are always happy to help out.


AndyT
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 2:18 am

Oh! Almost forgot! One other really cool thing is that GP 6 now shows you the rhythm pattern for any song you type in. No more guessing at it. It does this with 'Slash' notation.


AndyT
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 2:37 am

Something I like to do, is take music for other instruments and type it in and GP gives me the TAB for guitar, Ukulele or many other instruments. Its a great conversion utility.


jayswett
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 6:15 am

I have also considered purchasing this piece of software, as i do think it would be useful in terms of improving guitar knowledge in general, but the time spent learning the software would, for me, be better spent watching lessons and playing my guitar. Just my two cents on the matter


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neverfoundthetime
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 6:41 am

sbutler wrote:
Ok, I've been a member of this site for 7 months now. My playing is light years ahead of where I ever thought I'd be in this short amount of time. I've spent almost all of my free time practicing, and didn't think or never knew just what Guitar Pro would do for a newbie like me.

So now that I've seen every body mention it with some regularity, its time to ask,
"What would I do with, or better yet, what would/could Guitar pro do for a pretty new player?"

I've looked at their site a little, but I guess not enough to have a complete understanding of what all it really does. I have not gotten into writing or composing music yet, heck I have a hard enough time playing.

A little more understanding of this Guitar Pro thing might do me some good.

and ps, Winter is here. The sea ice on the west coast is freezing up. I've been in 3 snow storms so far this week, making flying a real nightmare. So get out the hoodie's all ya'll in the south, its a comin'


Scott Image
Nice office Scott!!!

Hope you don't practice at work... like Chas does! :-)


Lavallee
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 8:21 am

jayswett wrote:
I have also considered purchasing this piece of software, as i do think it would be useful in terms of improving guitar knowledge in general, but the time spent learning the software would, for me, be better spent watching lessons and playing my guitar. Just my two cents on the matter
Jay the part that I use (and probably most of the users)in guitar Pro is the playback function. There is no learning curve with this. You open the file and click play. If you find a section challenging, you can slow it down. You can use a loop to repeat the section so you do not have hit start again at the end of the track. The complicated part is enter new notes, putting lyrics and all. This is not what most of would use here. As Chas suggested, download the trail version good for 15 days. There is nothing to loose. I find this a great tool to memorize the music sheet.

Marc


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TGNeil
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 9:11 am

I think a really important point to make is pretty much what Marc just said- for most people the really valuable feature of GP is the playback ability, which again has no learning curve. When people talk about the difficult parts of the software they are referring to writing out tab or standard notation, which can be frustrating at first. Some of this depends on the users understanding of written music and some is just learning the ins and outs of the program.

I do have to say that when I started using it there were times I wanted to just go back to handwriting and scanning things, like I had been doing for decades. After a short while it started coming together and GP and I finally worked in harmony. Now, I even find it faster than working by hand and if I want to write out something that a student is working on in a lesson, I do it on the spot while they wait, rather than start by hand and redo it later. It is much more efficient. Again, this side of GP is not really that accessible or necessary to most players and doesn't need to be for it to be a great learning tool.

On a side note, there have many programs over the years that presented the same types of challenges and I didn't really overcome them until they became necessary for whatever projects I was working on at the time. Many programs come to mind immediately; Photoshop, Finale, Final Cut (which is what I use for all the TG videos), and many years ago FileMaker and a few things from Bill Gates that shall remain nameless...

Neil


Hydroman52
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 11:56 am

Scott,

This is turning out to be a very informative thread that you started. For example, I didn't know that GP would convert from guitar to ukulele. That puts another x in the plus column for me.

Here is a question for Andy . . . . . does GP6 convert everything that you write for guitar (solos, chords, etc.) into formats for other instruments. Will it show conversion of fingering on the fretboards or a keyboard for that matter? Is there a demo or information that you could point me to that explains?



Other quick comments for those who have the time . . . . . . .

Scott . . . I'm beginning to get the drift that my thoughts about the program are similar to yours and some others.

My biggest fear is not that it will be something that I won't use, it's more that I will get into exploring it too much and blow an entire weekend or more on it (open Pandora's box anyone?). That's just my nature . . . have been that way all my life . . . it's happened many times before. Right now, my free time that I can allocate to music is being consumed by jamming with others (not a bad situation). When I'm not at a jam session, I'm practicing songs that we have committed to learning and improving. This is far more valuable to me right now than being hunched over a keyboard . . . . unless it would bring much more added value to other musicians in the group.

I know that I will eventually install and try it out (maybe on a week when I'm snowed in and not exploring and troubleshooting other software for work), but right now, I don't think I am ready to spend the time on it. At times, I get stalled in my progress and then I search for something that will break me loose and get me moving forward again (good example is joining TG). I'm just not stalled . . . . I'm moving forward . . . why change that?

These are just harmless thoughts and not the rule.

Hydroman52


sbutler
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Sun Oct 17, 2010 12:16 pm

Now that you all have explained it too me a little more, I can see some value in this software. I'm sure, like Neil said, that once you really WANT to learn it, it would probably come.

I don't have anyone to jam with, except Neil on the target lessons, and I think that's good enough for now. But it sounds like the ability to change speed and loop the measures that I really need help with, is a very good thing.

I did make mention in another thread a few days ago about trying to create my own finger picking version of "While my guitar gently weeps", and maybe if I were well versed in GP6, that process would come much easier for me. Right now its not coming at all.

I just may give that trial thing a trial and see were it leads.

Thanks guys.
Scott


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