14 Guitar Pro 7.6 tips you need to know

Do you think that you know Guitar Pro 7 well? Are you really sure?

In this article, we put your knowledge of the software to the test by sharing 14 little-known tips on your favorite tablature editor.

Here we go!

Save your Stylesheet

You might have already used the Stylesheet (File > Stylesheet) to give a more personalized look to your tablatures.

But have you ever saved your Stylesheet to create a template to use on all your files?

To save your customized Stylesheet, you just need to apply your settings and then click on the “Options” menu, then select “Save Style…”.

To use your Stylesheet every time you use Guitar Pro, go to the preferences menu. (Guitar Pro 7 > Preferences > General > DOCUMENTS > Force stylesheet) to apply your customized Stylesheet.

Tip: you can’t find your Stylesheet? Close and relaunch the software, it should now appear in the drop-down menu.

You can also read : [TUTO] 10 Tips to give a professional look to your scores in Guitar Pro.

Use the Fretboard view to improve your skills

The Guitar Pro 7 Fretboard view can really help you in your guitar playing. (View > Show Fretboard view).

Here are several things you can do with the guitar neck view:

• Show 1 beat + 1 bar to better see what you are going to play in one bar
• Show a scale on the guitar neck to practice your improvisation skills or to compose solos and melodies
• Hide the names of the notes of the scale to practice memorizing the notes on the neck
• Choose the “Left-handed” mode if you are left-handed

If you are composing and if you don’t know anything about music theory, you can display the guitar neck on any instrument other than a guitar to compose using the tablature notation

Feel free to use this technique on your piano, saxophone, or violin for example!

Get help to complete the end of a bar

Do you see these numbers on the LCD display? It’s situated at the top of your screen.

Do you see a green light? It means that your bar is fine. (example : 4.0:4.0).

Do you see a red light? Your bar is incomplete. 

If the first number is lower than the second, beats are missing. If you see for instance: 3.0:4.0 it means that one beat is missing in your bar to complete your 4/4 time signature.

And if the first number is higher than the second, your bar has too many notes in it. You’ll have to remove notes or reduce their durations.

For example, if you see 4.5:4.0 it means that your bar has got an extra eight note.

Add a capo

To add a capo to your track, you can go to the right panel called “Inspector”, select “TRACK” then click on the cogwheel next to “Tuning”.

Here are several tips on how to use the capo feature:

• you can add both a capo and a partial capo
• if you only want a partial capo, don’t activate the traditional capo
• pay attention to the “Adjust the Fingering” option, especially if you add the capo once your score is already edited. This feature may alter any fingerings you have previously added.
  
  

how to use the repeat signs

Do you want to write a challenging riff with repetitions?

The repeat sign saves you from having to write the same thing several times.

To add a repeat sign, just click on the icon (“Repeat Open”) situated on the left panel, it’s made of 2 bars and 2 dots. Click on the first beat of a bar and click on this icon to add the repeat sign. You can then choose the number of times you want it to repeat itself.

If you want to add a change to the last bar at the end of your loops:

Here is an example of a 4 bar riff with 4 repetitions:

• Create a 4 bars riff without adding any repeat sign
• Add an “Alternate Endings” by clicking on the icon situated in the left panel. This icon is placed between the 2 repeat signs.

This is pretty convenient, don’t you think?

Use the multivoice feature

The multivoice feature is quite unknown by Guitar Pro 7 users. But it can very useful if you need to edit several melodic voices with different rhythms.  

To edit a multivoice track, go to Edit > Voices then select the voice you want to edit. (1,2,3, or 4).

For instance, you can use it on a drum track to mix binary and ternary simultaneously.

Here is an example:

• Voice 1: quarter notes are used to play Chain cymbals on the beat
• Voice 2: the bass is made of a flow of eight notes in triplets
• Voice 3: a flow of single eighth notes is played ont the snare

You get a very original drum break you could use in a rock or metal intro!

Learn how to display chord diagrams on your score

Adding chord diagrams to your tablatures is very useful for understanding the structure of a song more easily.

You can try several options to customize your scores as you like.

First open the Stylesheet: Files > Page & Score Format > CHORD DIAGRAMS

You have 2 options here: 

• Notation: you can change the way you number the chords as you like. You can display them in different styles: “Classic”, “Jazz” and “Rock”.
  
• On Top of Score: you have a slider that allows you to adapt the size of the diagrams. I personaly find this feature very useful for editing guitar lessons, especially when learning how to improvise with a chord grid for instance
  

Lyrics editing

If you need to edit lyrics this tip will be very useful for you:

To open the lyrics editor, you can use the button on the left panel or: track > Show Lyrics Editor.

Here are a few tips to help you enter lyrics:

• Use square brakets in your lyrics to highligh the parts of the song: [Intro], [Verse], [Chorus], [Solo], [Bridge], [Outro].
  The texts in square brackets won’t appear on your score. This trick can help you calrify your text.
  
• Add a space to place a word on the next note. Add “+” if you want to add several words on the same beat.
  
• Final tip: use symbols such as dashes and underscores to symbolize the links between words. These small details can help as singer find his or her way throught the lyrics.
  
  

Slides editing

You have probably already noticed all the different types of slides available in the Edition Palette. But do you know the differences between them?

Here is a sum-up of all the slides and their differences:

• Legato Slide: the 1st note is played, then the finger slides to the 2nd note. The 2nd note is not played by a finger or the pick
• Shift Slide: the 1st note is played, then the finger slides the 2nd note. The 2nd note is played by a finger or the pick
• Slide In from Below: the note is played from a lower fret, the number of the fret is not specified
• Slide In from Above: the note is played from a higher fret, the number of the fret is not specified
• Slide Out Downwards: the note is played and then the finfer slides to a lower fret (not specified)
• Slide Out Upwards: the note is played then the finger slides to a higher fret (not specified)
  
  

How to use the loop and the speed trainer

The loop and the speed trainer features are great for learning difficult parts of a song step by step.

Select the bars you want to loop, click on the loop icon and next lick on the percentage button next to the LCD screen to activate the feature.

On the percentage drop-down pane, you can choose: “Custom values….”:

Once you opened the speed trainer:

• click on “Progressive Speed”
• choose a relative starting speed and a relative finishing speed
• set the number of repetitions and the steps to apply in each repetition
  
  

You can use this feature in several ways:

• from 50 to 75% to start learning a difficult riff or solo
• from 75 to 100% to gently get used to playing the part
• from 100 to 110% to pratice your speed. This technique is particularly effective if you are practicing for a live performance on stage
  
  

Show or hide a notation

Here is a little tip that we sometimes forget:
In the right panel, (Inspector), in “Track” you can choose the notation you want to display for the instruments.

It’s really convenient: 

• to display the tablature on a track that is not a guitar to better understand what is being played
  
• to display the drum tablature on a drum track (Guitar Pro 5 fans will like it)
  
• to display the standard notation alone to learn how to read the notes on a staff
  
  

Audio export

The audio export is a wonderful tool for creating backing tracks. To use it you can go to: File > Export > Audio…

You have several very useful options available in the export window, you can:
 

• create a file for each track:
  You just have to import all the tracks in a DAW without your guitar track to pratice or to compose and record in your favourite recording software
  
• add the sound of a metronome in the export to help you in your recording project.
  
  

Preferences when opening files

If you use Guitar Pro very often, I advise you to take a look at the preferences to set the options to your use: Guitar Pro menu > Preferences.

For instance, you can: 

• set a default template for new documents when you create a new project
  
• always open last session documents
  
• always display artist and copyright information when a new file is created
  
• manage your audio input and output devices
  
• and many other options!
  
  

Essential keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are really useful to know, especially if you use Guitar Pro very often. They can save you a lot of time when playing or editing scores.

Here are very useful shortcuts to know:

Editing shortcuts: 

• A: open the chord window
  
  
• ⌥⌘N / Ctrl+Shift+Ins: add a new track
  
  
• ⌘R / Ctrl+R: fill empty bars with multi rests, this is very useful to clean up a guitar solo track for example
  
  
• B: add a bend 
  
  
• ⌘D / Ctrl+D: add a Pickstroke Down
  
  
• ⌘U / Ctrl+U: add a Pickstroke Up
  
  
• ⇧⌘C / Ctrl+Shift+C + ⇧⌘V / Ctrl+Shift+V: copy and paste keeping the rhythmic time signatures
  
  
• ⌥↓ / Alt+Down: to move a note to a lower string
  
  
• ⌥↑ / Alt+Up: to move a note to a higher string
  
  
• ⌥⌘+ / Shift+Ins: to edit the name of a section (example : add a chorus section on the score)
  
  
• ⌘M / Ctrl+M: switch to Multivoice editing
  
  
• ⌘+ / Ins: insert a beat
  
  
• F3: show the Multitrack view
  
  
• ⇧% / Shift+%: repeat one bar
  
  
• ⌘T / Ctrl+T: open the Time Signature window 
  
  

Playing shortcuts : 

• ⌘G / Ctrl+G: select the bar you want to go to
  
  
• ⌘→ / Ctrl+Right: to move your cursor from bar to bar (not from beat to beat)
  
  
• F11 + Esc: switch to full screen and exit full screen mode
  
  
• ⇧Space / Ctrl+Space: play the file from the beginning
  
  

Other shortcuts:

• ⌘O / Ctrl+O : open a file
  
  
• ⌘W / Ctrl+W : close a file
  
  
• ⇧⌘W / Ctrl+Shift+W : close all files
  
  

Conclusion

I hope that this list of tips has taught you more about Guitar Pro and will help you in your daily use.

What about you? Do you have hidden options or other tips to share with us? Feel free to share them in the comments for the benefit of other users!