I have rewritten Vguitar in C++ and completely changed the guitar experience to provide new insights and a new tool/platform for making music with the Guitar! For most, learning and working with songs is really the interest.

Easy to install

On a Debian box install with the apt package manager.
apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys AB406C34
Add this to your /etc/apt/sources.list.d
deb [ arch=amd64 ] http://apt.nick-strauss.com/apt/debian jessie main
Then type

apt update
apt-get install vguitar

I have not built these for other Linux distributions, nor for other operating systems. This isn’t hard to do, but I haven’t had the time nor need to do this. I am hoping that my package will be accepted by Debian, and then I won’t have to worry about distribution.

Easy to build

The software is licensed under the GNU Free Software license.

VGuitar is lean and efficient only dependent on libasound and ncurses. Most other MIDI instruments (e.g. VMPK) need to have Qt and other dependencies. This gives a more polished user interface, but makes it harder to build from source. I intentionally tried to reduce the dependencies to a minimal set.

apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys AB406C34

Add this to your /etc/apt/sources.list.d

deb-src http://apt.nick-strauss.com/apt/debian jessie main

And in the usual Ubuntu/Debian,
apt-get source vguitar

I have updated the original page (here is the link
2017 Vguitar apt release) with updated instructions for accessing the 2.5 release from my Debian repository.

I am not doing any version control or change management because this is a solo effort. Not because I don’t want to work with others. At some point in the not-too-distant future, if there is any interest, I will probably use GitHub for version control. The build is actually fairly mature, though I know already of some features I am going to put in.

Guitar Tablature Editor
VGuitar is a tablature editor. You can easily import existing tablature with some minor editing. VGuitar reads classicTrax format which is a simple text ASCII familiar tablature format.

It is easy to edit tabs. Changing the clip interval ‘[‘ and ‘]’, allows you type into the time interval. Use the arrow keys to move about the tab.

Guitar Instrument
Specify the MIDI port with -A, and run a synthesizer, qsynth.

Press the space bar, and the clip region will play.

New features:

Alternative tunings

EADGBE is standard tuning. Most people, including me, don’t mess with it, because it’s a hassle to get the strings tuned, even with an auto tuner. Vguitar supports general MIDI tuning, relative, and open D tunings.

Box mode

Transit between modes

Much, much easier to play.
Here is a few from “Ta Pedia Tou Pirea” in box and tab modes

00   BOX=====================
E   421   -    -    -    -   
B   2-    -    -   0-3   -  
G    -   2-    -    -    -  
D    -    -    -    -    -  
A    -    -   4-    -    - 
E   1-    -    -    -    -  
00   =====================

and the TAB,

00   TAB======================================================
E    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    0    0    -    0    0   
B    -    -    -    -    0    2    3    -    0    3    -    0  
G    -    2    1    2    -    -    -    -    1    -    -    1 
D    2    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    - 
A    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    2    - 
E    -    -    -    -    -    -    -    0    -    -    -    - 
00   ==============================[===================]=====