How to Import Guitar Pro Files into Musescore [ANSWERED]

If you’re a musician and you’re familiar with a lot of the technology and computer programs that are used, Musescore is probably something you’ve heard of before. It’s a useful notation and sheet music editor that can be used for almost any instrument.

It’s probably one of the best editors, however, Guitar Pro does exist. The thing about GP though is that it’s best for guitar and not for other instruments. Thankfully, there is a bit of compatibility between the two. For example, you can import GP files into Musescore.

To import Guitar Pro Files into Musescore, all you have to do is drag and drop the Guitar Pro file into the Musescore interface. The issue, however, is that Musescore will automatically put everything into the first position. Use the Control + Up/Down to change note positions.

In other words, Musescore and Guitar Pro can play nicely together, it’s just that it’s not perfect. I’m not a Musescore expert so I imagine there are other ways of importing GP files, but I do know how to fix the problem I mentioned earlier. I’ll show you down below.

Importing Guitar Pro Files into Musescore (And More)

The video I made that’s shown above will work you through the exact same process that’s illustrated with text and images down below.

Regarding the Shift + Up/Down command that moves notes around, it’s easy to go overboard with it and go beyond changing the tablature positioning.

If you pull too much, up or down, you’ll wind up pulling the notes so much that they become entirely different notes altogether.

If you just want to change the positioning, ie, where on the fretboard the C is played, then go step by step. Just go nice and easy and you’ll avoid messing everything up.

That said, you could always just open up a new file and drag the GP file in again. Take a look at the step-by-step tutorial down below:

1) Have the Guitar Pro File On Your Desktop and Musescore Open

Whenever I need to drag something into software, an editor, or an external hard drive, I’ll typically have the file I need right on the desktop.

I find that if I don’t do it this way, the files end up going places where I normally wouldn’t put them. I’d recommend doing it that way as well.

2) Drag and Drop the Guitar Pro File Into Musescore

Miraculously, Guitar Pro files work just fine in Musescore, which I was honestly surprised to see. However, it works a bit differently than Guitar Pro. This is to be expected.

Whenever you drag and drop a Guitar Pro file into Musescore, it will automatically pick apart the tablature and sheet music. It puts the sheet music onto one tab, the rhythm onto another, and the tablature too.

3) Switch Between the Tabs On the Top-Left for Tab/Music

As far as I can tell, the sheet music editor imports the Guitar Pro sheet music perfectly, however, the issue is with the tablature.

What ends up happening is that Musescore doesn’t know how to interpret the finger positioning. And by default, it inputs all of the ambiguous notes in the first position. I’ll show you how to fix it down below.

4) In the Tablature Tab, Use Control + Up/Down To Change Fret Positions

The Option + Up/Down command also works for pulling on the notes. And it’s also worth mentioning that you don’t have to do an entire measure all at once.

You can change the positioning of just one note if you want to. I’d like to point out too that you can use the Shift Key to drag a selection box around all of the notes whose fingering you’d like to change.

I find that Guitar Pro is a much better tool to use because it’s more intuitive, but Musescore works well too. I’m a guitar player though, so I’m sure multi-instrumentalists would vehemently disagree.

For this tutorial, I used Guitar Pro X files, but Musescore will take Guitar Pro 5 files as well. Use the Export function in File > Export, in Guitar Pro, and choose the file format that you want.

I showed you how to do this in my article on exporting files out of Guitar Pro. You can do the same thing with MIDI, which is really cool.

Other Articles You May Be Interested In

• Can Guitar Pro Import PDF Files?

Important Things to Note About Guitar Pro and Musescore

1) It May Take You A Bit To Figure Out Musescore

In my opinion, Musescore is a lot harder to use than Guitar Pro. There are more controls, more instruments, and more capabilities.

However, Musescore isn’t nearly as easy to use as Guitar Pro. Guitar Pro, as I said in my review of it, is fairly intuitive and all of the controls aren’t hard to come by.

I can’t say the same thing for Musescore which can be a bit cumbersome at times. For that reason, give yourself a bit of time to figure out the controls because you may need it.