GuitarBizarre

Simply put, practice will help you more than anything else here.

One thing I will say -

1 - Guitar pro and powertab are GREAT for learning how to stay in time with a song, just play along!
2 - Don't get TOO reliant on them. They're great, but because they're midi, they very robotic sounding, particularly with strumming. This isn't to say they're not useful for learning that, because they are, but bear in mind that if you try to imitate guitar pro's strumming exactly, you'll just sound like a machine. Use the guitar pro tabs to stay in time with the song and ensure you're not making any glaring errors, but remember to play like a human being!

3 - Once you've done a little more practice, either with guitar pro or without, play along to your favourite songs and listen to how they strum things. A who song is strummed completely differently to say, Hocus pocus, by focus. Learning to make the same sounds is best achieved by WATCHING a live performance.

4 - Get some friends involved! YOu might be embarrased to show off your fledgling skills to friends, but they'll only help you get better and when you go wrong they'll show you how, and more often than not show you how to correct it.

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