Pickup bars, ties, and repeats in Guitar Pro explained

A pickup, or anacrusis, contains one or more notes before the first complete downbeat. Its duration is intentionally shorter than the stated metre. The final bar may complement it in traditional notation, but the essential point is that the opening partial measure represents real musical time, not missing rests.

Do not label an arbitrary incomplete bar as a pickup just to remove a warning. Only the deliberate lead-in should be treated that way. Later underfilled or overfilled bars usually indicate wrong note values, tuplets, voices, or time signatures and should be repaired at their source.

A tie connects two notes of the same pitch so they sound as one sustained event across a beat, barline, or notational division. The second note extends duration and should not be attacked again. This is especially useful when a note crosses a barline or must show the internal beat structure clearly.

A slur, hammer-on, pull-off, or slide connects different pitches for phrasing or technique. Replacing those with a tie is musically wrong even if playback appears smooth. If a tie fails, confirm both notes have the same sounding pitch after tuning, capo, and transposition.

A repeat close sends playback to the relevant repeat opening and may carry a repeat count. If there is no explicit opening where expected, software and readers must infer a starting point. Place the boundaries around the exact passage and avoid nested or overlapping structures unless the musical form truly requires them.

Test from at least one bar before the repeat opening. Watch the cursor through the close, return, and eventual exit. Starting playback inside the repeated passage may not reproduce the same state as arriving there naturally, especially when endings or directions depend on pass count.

First and second endings tell the performer which bars belong to specific passes through a repeat. The first ending must lead to the repeat close when another pass is required; the later ending must provide the route onward. Label each ending for the intended pass and ensure its bracket covers the complete bars.

For more than two passes, decide exactly which repeat numbers use each ending. Listen through the entire structure rather than clicking directly into the final ending. If playback skips or loops unexpectedly, inspect the ending assignments, repeat count, and placement of the close sign together.

When a bar turns red or the duration checker flags it, inspect every voice and the current time signature. Hidden second-voice rests, an untied duplicate attack, a tuplet with the wrong ratio, or a time-signature change placed one bar late can all create a mismatch that looks unrelated to the visible notes.

When repeat playback is wrong, simplify the diagnosis: temporarily mute unrelated tracks, begin before the repeat, and write down the actual cursor route. Check open sign, close sign, count, endings, and later directions in order. Avoid duplicating bars until the route works, because duplication can hide the structural mistake while making later edits harder.