Guitar mode explained

[BogdanH]

This article is meant for style creators.

We can find Guitar mode in SFF Edit: NTR/NTT section of Style Creator -that's pretty much all we can read about it in Reference manual. Because there's nowhere explained how to use Guitar mode, I decided to write here a short explanation.
Before I get into it... The only purpose of Guitar mode is to create guitar strumming easier! -that is, it's not meant for creating some guitar riffs.

The first question is usually: why bothering with Guitar mode, if we can also create strumming by using normal Root Trans mode?
Yes, we can create strumming in Root Trans mode too and that's how many do it. However that's only a imitation of real strumming. Real guitar strumming (playing correct notes) can't be created in Root Trans mode.
Real guitar strumming is especially important for Classic (country) guitar ballads and probably in many other cases, i.e Mexican music.

Here you can see strings on a normal guitar and what notes they produce on keyboard:
Image: Guitar strings

We must keep in mind that on keyboard, guitar voices are shifted by one octave. That means, if we have guitar voice selected and hit C3 key, what we will hear is actually C2. The same is true if we record guitar notes, i.e. if we play E3, then E2 note will be recorded. Btw. it's similar for bass guitar -the difference is, notes are shifted by two octaves.
Usually we don't care about that, but as we will see later, in Guitar mode that's quite important to know.

A guitar only has six strings and so in Guitar mode, only six keys are used. On picture above we can see that on keyboard, there's quite a wide span between E1 and E3, which would make fluid strumming extremely unpractical -not to mention how to translate all that into chords.
And so Yamaha implemented Guitar mode, where for six string only six keys need to be used: D3-B3, which corresponds to D2-B2 recorded notes (black keys aren't used):
Image: Guitar mode

Obvious question: How can we create any chord if only six fixed notes are used? The answer is, forget notes!
These six keys represent string numbers. That is, first key (D3) is 1st string (on top), E3 key is 2nd string from the top, F key is 3rd string from the top, etc. It doesn't matter what tone each string produces (more about that later) -only string number matters.

If we press keys D3-B3 one after another (strum), we will hear/record notes D2-E2-F2-G2-A2 and B2, instead of some chord. And that's the problem: inside Style Creator we can't know how the key sequence will sound later -which also makes editing kinda complicated.
Ok, how will it sound if we leave Style Creator? Now magic happens: all relevant keys will be properly translated into guitar strings chord. Here's a reference picture of how keys are translated for all major guitar chords:
Image: Guitar mode -major chords
-greenish indicated keys are the keys that we would need to use to play particular chord on keyboard. But as mentioned before, actual tones will be one octave lower.

Let's take a look on how keys are translated if we press C major chord:
We can see that top string will not sound -that's because the lowest note that first string on guitar can play is E1 (not C1). The remaining five strings will produce exactly the same notes as on real guitar: C2-E2-G2-C3 and E3.
Actually we can force first string to sound by using C3# instead of D3 key (in this case first string will play G3 note). However that's not recommended, because that won't work properly for chords which can use all six strings (E, F and G chords).

As we can see, in all chords first sounding string is root note -except for D chord, where first sounding note is A1. I assume that Yamaha decided for this exception simply to have "chord consists of minimum 5 strings" rule -at least that's true if we choose NTT Type: All Purpose or Stroke.
If we choose NTT Type: Arpeggio, then only lowest four strings will produce a sound (for all chords).

Maybe interesting... We can also use D4-B4 keys instead of D3-B3. In this case Arpeggio key section is translated into different chord notes.

Ok, that's it. Happy strumming 

Bogdan

[rattley]

Hello!

Thank you for your excellent explanation. Not knowing much about how guitars respond to chord changes, I often wonder how "authentic"? my guitar playing is. Just because I like what I hear doesn't always mean the notes are correct.  I'm sure a real guitar player would laugh!!  -charley

P.S.  The same dilemma applies to how authentic most instruments are emulated.  I now spend more time trying to improve that. Since Yamaha has made great improvements with Genos2 and its "realism" I need to step up my game too. So much more fun.......I just can't stand it!  -charley

[BogdanH]

hi Charley,
Thank you for kind comment. Yes, the main reason to use Guitar mode is to get authentic (correct notes) strumming, which we can't create otherwise.
Truth to be told, not long ago, if I needed some light strumming in background, then I simply used regular Root Transp method -which can emulate strumming of 3rd, 4th and 5th string good enough.
But if full strumming is needed (like in Banks of Ohio or Mull of Kintyre) then Guitar mode is the only solution.

Actually there's no reason why not to use Guitar mode for strumming (once we know how to do it). As I mentioned, the only problem is, we can't hear the result unless we exit Style Creator.
The editing in StepEditor is also quite simple, if we look at notes as being strings. For example, if first three strings (from the top) are too loud, then we need to reduce velocity of D, E and F note.

Bogdan