Hi,

I don't play guitar, but I have a keen eye on writing music/riffs. I want to be able to send riffs to our guitarist, so he can check them out.
What is good software for someone who does not read notes to write guitar riffs in?

Thanks in advance

Guitar Pro or tuxguitar. Both are tablature software, Guitar Pro costs (but it can be found for free if you don't mind breaking the law a bit), tuxguitar is free. Learn how to read guitar tab, it's easy and it'll make your life easier for this. I imagine there'll be tutorials on youtube or somewhere for how to use the software if you need them.

Thanks, but I don't have the time and patience to read guitar tabs, as I have enough in regards to work right now. So, yeah.

There's also a keyboard interface in Guitar Pro that you can use to create tabs.

Really, though, what kind of attitude is that? Quit joking around, and put the time and effort into your music that it deserves.

With all due respect, you don't know anything about the context, my attitude and even less about how much time and effort I put in my music. As I said, I am looking for a decent way how I can bring across the riffs that are in my head right now. Besides that, I am purely concentrated on my vocal duties, writing lyrics and two jobs.

So thanks for your keyboard interface tip, but keep your judgemental comments to yourself next time.

With respect to your personal situation, writing tab is about as easy as transcribing music gets. You'd probably be surprised at how easy it would come to you. You're just writing fret numbers on lines that represent strings. That being said, if you don't know how to play an instrument then you're in for a lot of guesswork when writing these parts out. Your best bet is to make voice recordings of you "singing" the riff.

I know, and I get what you are saying but is of no help at this specific moment and for this specific moment, it is what I am looking for. Ok, purchasing Shreddage it is.

Your comment here shows a kind of attitude that I've come across before that really makes me see red:

It really rubbed me the wrong way, because I've worked with people who desire to have influence in every facet of a project, but aren't willing to make the effort to do the actual work, and expect everyone else to pick up the slack on their behalf, thinking their input is just so much more valuable despite their having no skill in the area. Maybe you aren't like that, and you're right that I don't know anything about your circumstances, but in any case, my tone was hardly more flippant than yours, and yours was targeted at someone who tried to be helpful to you as well.

Apologies for being unnecessarily curt. Hopefully Shreddage works out for you!

I guess you misjudged the tone of my answer. When I don't have the time and patience for it, it means that there are certain factors that disable me to be.

We are in studio recordings. A project that I started. I did recorded some riffs I came up with in a guitar vst without tab, so he had to copy it by ear. Which is hard. To make things easier for the guitarist, I was looking for a piano roll-esque software that also shows guitar tabs, for instance.

Learning tabs is a great idea, but that is not what helps me at this moment or answers my initial question.

Tab consists of six lines, that correspond to the six strings on a guitar. The numbers written on said lines correspond to what fret that string should be played on. So, this:



Is a power chord based on E, that being your open sixth string, then the second fret on the A and D strings.

Here's how you would write out Breaking the Law:



Congratulations, you can now read tab. There are ways of notating your note lengths in written tab, but Guitar Pro and tuxguitar have shortcuts and buttons to do that automatically.

If you want to make things easy for you and your guitarist, learn how tab works. It's basic shit. If you put in all of half an hour's work, you can be up and running and able to tab shit out with relatively little time and effort. It will also help you with your general musicianship, improve your ear, all that sort of thing. Go on ultimate-guitar.com and download some guitar pro tabs of your favourite songs and see how they're all put together if you're really struggling.

You asked for riff writing software, this is the best and easiest way of writing riffs. Untold thousands of bands and projects use it, because it really is the best. It's worth the personal inconvenience of taking a little bit of time to learn it. Your guitarist will probably already have used the software, and other musicians you work with in the future will probably be familiar with it too. It also means that if you have other musicians getting involved you have the songs written out, essentially in demo form, ready to be learnt super quickly.

Have you also considered maybe asking your guitarist how he'd like riffs to be sent?

I am familiar with this, but for now I was looking for a quick way during our current studio time. Which I have solved with Shreddage. Thanks!

Great added value

additionally the same to you sir. Tabs are easy and quick to learn and utilize. Glad you found something that works for you cause you seem to be so whatever to bother with the most commonly used form of musical writing.

That is incorrect.