Guitar tab software

[gdeleo]

Hi all,
I hope this is the correct place to put this topic, but if not feel free to move it.

This week my teacher suggested that I get a tab software to help me with learning new songs.  He suggested Guitar Pro and he also suggested another one that was free, but I can't remember the name. 

Do any of you use Guitar Pro, and has it helped you to learn new songs and do you think that it is worth the $59.95 that it sells for? Also if there are any other software that you use, please let me know that I can check it out.

I did download the trial version of Guitar Pro but you can't import any songs into it and it is kind of limited on what you can see it do.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

I haven't used Guitar Pro but I am not a big fan of Tab.  I use it from time to time to figure out song parts but I mostly just get the sheet music or my teacher and I listen to a song and he helps me figure it out.

Do you already know how to read standard music notation?

[gdeleo]

Yes I can read standard notation.  This is one of the things he helped me to learn this year.

Anyone else has any comments on Guitar Pro?

Thanks!

[byrd]

I'm not to too familiar with Guitar Pro either, but after a quick look at their website, it seems like it's geared more towards music composition than it is viewing song tabs.  That being the case, it seems like the software would really be overkill if you're essentially just going to be using it as a tab viewer.  I suppose functions like playback, tempo control, etc might be useful, but that would only utilize a small portion of what you'd be purchasing. 

I have used the free Tab Pro tabs over at ultimate-guitar.com periodically.  That can be pretty useful, but I've only ever used the free version.  I don't know if those tabs are any more reliable that the text based tabs that are available from ultimate-guitar.com.  Actually, I've found that the poor text tabs (as long as they're not too far off) at ultimate-guitar.com or other sites can sometimes be helpful.  As I'm learning, I can identify problematical portions and correct them (to my ear at least).  I'll also sometimes combine various sections from multiple tabs into something that I feel is more correct.  It's probably a safe bet to take all these tabs with a grain of salt though, unless you're going to actually purchase real tab books.   ...And I have no idea where you would purchase Guitar Pro tabs, what the selection is, and how reliable they would be.  I didn't see that info on their website.

Lastly, I'm only a novice at best, but I've always found that if you have a tab (good or bad) it's easiest to simply listen to the actual song you're trying to learn.  Now a days, I just use grooveshark.com (if a song is available there).  That way you can play a specific song on demand, pause, rewind, loop, etc as much as you want.  It's not a perfect solution either but it's workable.

[Terry]

Chordie is pretty good too, but all of them vary considerably depending upon the songs and the posters.

[gdeleo]

Finally bit the bullet and purchased Guitar Pro.  Found it to be really useful in getting songs correct (like the original).  It does have some cool features that have helped me already.  Printed out some songs and shared them with my teacher and he also commented that it was helpful.  One neat thing is that you can compose your own tunes and play them back, which really helps.  If you are interested there is a trial version that you can download but it is very limited.

[Penname]

I use Guitar Pro on my iPad. Also tried the trial version on my laptop but found the iPad app does everything I need for now. And the iPad version is much cheaper.

I can read standard notation and generally use it. But when learning a new song I'll enter it in Guitar Pro using tab, make sure it translates to the correct standard notation, and mess with the tempo. Once everything is set I change the settings to display standard notation only and practice off it when I travel.