4. Techniques

Vibrato, trills and tremolo picking

Vibrato, trills and tremolo picking keep a note moving after it starts. Vibrato wavers its pitch; a trill alternates it quickly with the note a half or whole step away; tremolo picking strikes it again and again. Each is written once on the note, and Stab plays the strokes out for you.

Select the notes first, or, with nothing selected, put the caret on the note. Right-click a note for its menu.

Vibrato

Available on every platform.

Vibrato

Vibrato (V) adds vibrato to the note, or takes it off. It’s also in the note’s Articulation submenu.

The Editor draws a wave along the top of the note, to its end, and the Score writes a vibrato line. Stab Strings, the built-in guitar sound, plays it as a gentle waver that starts just after the pick; other sounds play the note straight.

Trills and tremolo picking

Available on every platform.

Trills

The note menu’s Trill submenu picks the note the trill alternates with: Half Step Up, Whole Step Up, Half Step Down or Whole Step Down. None takes the trill off. Under them, Sixteenths, Thirty-Seconds and Sixty-Fourths set how fast it goes; a new trill starts in sixteenths.

On a fretted track the trill is played by hammer-ons and pull-offs, so only the first stroke is picked. The Editor writes tr and the other note’s fret over it, “tr (9)”, with a tight wave along the note; when that fret is off the neck, it writes the step instead, “tr +2”. On a keys lane, the step is written beside the note.

Drum tracks have no Trill submenu.

Tremolo picking

The note menu’s Tremolo Picking submenu re-picks the note for its whole length, in Eighths, Sixteenths, Thirty-Seconds or Sixty-Fourths; None takes it off. Every other stroke is a touch softer, as an up-stroke is. The Editor draws slashes by the note, one for eighths, two for sixteenths and so on, as the Score does on the stem.

On a drum track the submenu is called Roll: the same rates turn a hit into a roll, drawn as slashes after the hit and a line through its length.

A note can have both a trill and tremolo picking set; the trill is what plays.

From files

Guitar Pro files bring their vibrato, trills and tremolo picking in, and Guitar Pro export writes them back.

Hide the marks

To hide these marks in the Editor, turn off Show Articulations (⌥⌘A)Show Articulations (Ctrl+Alt+A)Show Articulations (Ctrl+Alt+A (⌥⌘A on a Mac)). A note with vibrato, a trill or tremolo picking then keeps a small dot on its fret (a rolled drum hit, on its corner), so you know it’s there.