Support and frequently asked questions

It isn't on sale yet. Leave your email and we'll write once when it is. It will cost $25, paid once, with no subscription, for Linux, Windows and macOS.

Yes, in your browser. The player and editor demo is free and needs no sign-up: three example pieces and the 45 songs in our free tab library, with tab, notation and a fretboard that follow the music, slow-down and looping, and note entry from the keyboard. The demo can't open or save files; that needs the desktop app.

No. One licence covers one person on all of their own computers, whether they run Linux, Windows and macOS, so a desktop and a laptop don't need two copies.

Yes. Every 1.x update is free. A future 2.0 may be a paid upgrade; if it is, the version you bought stays yours and keeps working.

If guitarnotation isn't right for you, email info@guitarnotation.com within 14 days of buying and we'll refund you in full, no questions asked. The same policy is in our terms.

No. There's no account and no subscription, in the app or on this site. The browser demo works without signing up, and the support form only asks for your email so we can reply.

Windows 10 or later, macOS 11 Big Sur or later, and Linux with an X11 or Wayland desktop, on any 64-bit computer. It needs about 250 MB of memory and no dedicated graphics card. See the full system requirements.

Yes. Everything runs on your computer and nothing is uploaded. The only time it needs the internet is once, to download a SoundFont for playback, and not even then if you already have one.

Playback and WAV export use a General MIDI SoundFont (an .sf2 file) for the instrument sounds. GeneralUser GS is a free download of about 32 MB. Any General MIDI .sf2 works too, and on Linux a SoundFont installed by your distribution, such as fluid-soundfont-gm or timgm6mb-soundfont, is found automatically.

No. Playback runs anywhere from 25% to 150% of the written tempo and every note keeps its pitch, so a fast passage played slowly still sounds in tune. Loop a single bar to repeat it while you work on it.

Yes. Switch between tab and notation together, tab only and notation only at any time. Only the view changes, not the song.

Hammer-ons, pull-offs, slides, vibrato, palm mutes and let ring. Select a note, choose the technique, and it's written above the tab. Try it in the editor demo.

Yes. It opens .gp files from Guitar Pro 7 and 8, .gpx files from Guitar Pro 6, and .gp5, .gp4 and .gp3 files from Guitar Pro 5, 4 and 3, along with MusicXML and MIDI. See supported formats. If a file won't open or looks wrong, email it to info@guitarnotation.com and say which program made it.

Yes. Export a .gp file and Guitar Pro 7 or 8 opens it with the strings, frets and techniques you wrote. MusicXML export keeps them too, for Guitar Pro, MuseScore, Finale, Sibelius or Dorico.

Yes. Export the song to PDF from the desktop app, then print the PDF.

Yes. Our free tab library has 45 public-domain songs, from Ode to Joy to Greensleeves, each with tab and standard notation. Play them in the browser demo, or download the MusicXML file and import it into the desktop app.

The demo runs entirely in your browser and stores nothing, so edits last until you reload or leave the page. Switching between Edit and Play keeps them. Opening, saving, importing and exporting files need the desktop app.

Not as a person. guitarnotation.com sets no cookies, except one that keeps invited testers signed in to the app preview, and uses no advertising or social media trackers. We count visits with Ahrefs Web Analytics, which doesn't use cookies or store IP addresses, so we can see how many people read a page but not who they are. Details are in the privacy policy.

Email info@guitarnotation.com or choose “Privacy or data request” on the support form, and we'll delete your messages and your launch-list address. We only hold what you've sent us; there's no account to close.