Effects

Slides, legato, vibrato, palm mute, let ring, and tapping, slap and pop.

Available on iPad, iPhone and Mac.

The Effect tools hold what a guitarist does between two notes or over several: sliding, hammering on, shaking the string, muting it with the palm.

The Effect tools

In Edit, Effect is among the tools’ categories. Its buttons, left to right:

• Shift Slide, Slide Up, Slide Down, Slide In ↑, Slide In ↓ and Legato (H.P.).
• Vibrato, Palm Mute, Let Ring and Whammy.
• Tap, Slap and Pop.
• Cresc. and Decresc.: see Dynamics.
• R Stick and L Stick: see Writing drums.

Slides

A slide joins a note to the next on its string, or brings a note in or out from nowhere:

• Shift Slide: from this note to the next, the next one picked again.
• Slide Up and Slide Down: out of the note, up or down the neck, to no note in particular.
• Slide In ↑ and Slide In ↓: into the note, from below or from above.

The slide is drawn as a line on the staff, and a note has one slide out and one slide in: choosing another replaces it. On the Mac: Effect › Slide Out (Shift Slide, Slide Out High, Slide Out Low) and Effect › Slide In (Slide In From Below, Slide In From Above).

Legato: hammer-ons and pull-offs

Legato (H.P.) marks a hammer-on or a pull-off from the note to the next one on its string: the second note isn’t picked. Put the cursor on the note you play first, or select it, and choose Legato. An arc joins it to the next note on the same string, with H above it when that note is higher (a hammer-on) and P when it is lower (a pull-off); the same fret twice gets the arc alone. On the standard staff, one slur covers a whole run of hammer-ons and pull-offs. When the next note is on another string, nothing is drawn: the note keeps its H.P., and the arc comes back if that note moves onto its string. Choose Legato again to take it away; Guitar Pro and MusicXML exports carry it. On the Mac: Effect › Legato L.

Vibrato, palm mute, let ring

These span several beats, drawn over them from the first to the last:

• Vibrato: a wavy line, the string shaken.
• Palm Mute (P.M. and a dashed line): the strings muted with the side of the hand.
• Let Ring (let ring…): the notes left to ring into each other.
• Whammy (w/bar): see Bends and whammy.

Select the beats first: turn on ⇧ on the keypad and move the cursor over themhold ⇧ and move with the arrows, or use the Select tool; then choose the effect; with nothing selected, it goes on the beat at the cursor. It spans from the first beat to the end of the last. A vibrato and a palm mute on the same beats are drawn one above the other. To take one away, select its line with the Select tool and choose Delete in its options. On the Mac: Effect › Vibrato V, Palm Mute P and Let Ring.

Tap, slap and pop

• Tap (T): the note tapped on the fretboard with the picking hand.
• Slap (S) and Pop (P): a bass’s thumb slap and finger pop; Reflow plays them with a slap bass sound.

Each turns on and off, on the beat at the cursor or the selected beats. On the Mac: Effect › Tapping, Slap and Pop.