Guitar Pro..

[Silas Martinez]

Just wondering if anyone else uses Guitar Pro to learn songs, and improve reading, etc?

I've found that it works best for me if I turn off the viewed tab (which tends to confuse me, because hand placement is always less than optimal in the tab - I won't get into the evils of TAB in this post) - not only do I improve my reading, but I'm more rapidly learning the material my band has laid out.

Anyone opinions on whether this is 'cheating' vs. a valid way to develop skills and repertoire?

Granted, I'm not developing my ears as well when working with it - but generally, the pattern I follow is to start by figuring out the chords and an approximate line, then I check it with guitar pro. I know not everything is notated accurately in GP, but at the least I'm giving myself something to compare what I've come up with against.

This is like a wonderland of sheet music for me. Its great!

[Poop-Loops]

I use it too. It's really useful. It helps develop my ears and my reading, because I can listen to a song and that will tell me if I am reading correctly, and I can play a part of a song and see if it's what the recording is like. I've found a few flaws in some files that way.

[Liquid-Tension]

No complaints from me either, love it

[JeffC]

I have it and use it regularly. It's a must for my band when picking up new songs. We keep a laptop in the jam space for that reason.

[tswd]

The band I'm in doesn't play covers, so your comment about turning off the tab doesn't apply, but I use it all the time to write down my own stuff. I find the tab useful in that case because I can remember exactly how I played something. If the hand placement is less than optimal in the tab, it's my own damn fault. ;-)

I also use it a lot when learning exercises. I'll enter them into GP so that I can slow them down and know exactly what they should sound like slow. It keeps me from getting into that habit of playing the easier parts at tempo and the harder parts slow.

[Etbass]

Best invention EVER!

It's also great for coming up with improv licks - just lay out some chords in one track, and randomly click all over the fretboard until you have a few bars of straight 16ths. And it's got a mad scales engine thing where it shows you a few hundred different scales. And it's midi based, so you can see all the instruments and sheet music in midi songs you have. If that's not awesome, I dunno what is.

[santucci218]

it is a good invention. anybody have aim and wanna trade guitar pro songs ever? that would be sick. ide like to try some of your guys bass lines on for size.