Finding suitable software to help you out with learning a musical instrument can sometimes prove to be more difficult than just sitting down and teaching yourself. A disproportionate number of programs scrape the surface and don’t provide the flexibility, depth or support that you need to be able to go beyond being a novice.
Thankfully, in Guitar Pro you will find a complete tool that will take you from tuning the guitar, through learning the scales and as far as composing your own sheet music. The main interface is a daunting array of buttons on both the top and bottom of the window. On further inspection it becomes clear that the majority are involved with composing and each one refers to a very specific element. With this in mind, there are actually very few that you need to be familiar with to get going and as your guitar skills progress, so too will your familiarity with the software.
Some of the gizmos included in the software can actually come in useful and let you do everything from one place. The digital guitar tuner and the metronome are extremely handy to have and save you the bother of going out to buy them or of searching through your cluttered room for either. Once prepared, you can get started on the individual note library that lets you visualize the fingering as well as listen to how they should sound. Moving on, you can practice the large variety of scales that each come with a plethora of variations.
Getting the basics down is all well and good, but when it comes to composing or playing sheet music, Guitar Pro has it licked. Using the virtual keyboard or guitar, although tedious, will yield results when you want to compose something of your own, but for optimum results you can hook up your own MIDI device (such as a keyboard) and get cracking on tracks that are as simple or complex as you want. The extra dimension of a separate MIDI device lets you get ideas down much quicker while also giving you the ability to experiment with variations of a piece.
It’s difficult to point out faults with Guitar Pro, but having mentioned the cluttered interface, it could do with a facelift in the form of tabs or something similar that would better categorize and clean up the buttons scattered around the screen. The help file covers each topic without going into excruciating detail and if you’re after some extra resources, you’ll find tablatures, lessons and exercises on the Guitar Pro web site.
A good one-stop solution for beginners and experts alike, Guitar Pro succeeds in delivering the variety and depth required to taking the next step to rock-stardom!
