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Play the Guitar in GarageBand for iPhone
Using the Guitar, you can play notes, chords and strumming patterns. You can choose from acoustic or electric guitar sounds, and turn on stompbox effects to customise the sound.
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Choose the sound of the Guitar
Tap the Navigation button
in the control bar, tap the Sounds button, then tap the sound you want to play. You can also swipe left or right on the Sounds button to change to the previous or next sound.
Play chords
Tap the Chord Strips button
to switch to Chords view.
Do any of the following:
Strum a chord: Swipe across the strings in one of the chord strips. You can also tap strings to play individual notes of a chord.
Play the full chord: Tap the top of a chord strip.
Mute the strings: Touch and hold the fretboard to the left or right of the chord strips as you play.
You can add your own custom chords to play.
Play a strumming pattern
Tap the Controls button
, then turn the Autoplay knob to one of the numbered positions.
Tap a chord strip. Tapping a different chord strip plays the same pattern with the notes of that chord, while tapping with two or three fingers plays variations of the pattern.
To access the full chord strip, tap the Controls button again.
Tap the chord strip again to stop the pattern playing.
Play individual notes
Tap the Chord Strips button
to switch to Notes view.
Tap the strings on the fretboard to play notes. You can also bend strings vertically to bend the pitch of a note up.
To play notes of a particular scale, tap the Scale button, then tap the scale you want to play.
The fretboard changes to show note bars. Tap the bars to play the notes of the scale.
Turn stompbox effects on or off
When you choose an electric guitar sound, stompbox effects appear above the Guitar fretboard. You can turn on the effects to change the sound.
Tap the Controls button
, then tap the round On/Off button in the lower part of a stompbox. A red light indicates that the stompbox is on.
Play the Retro Wah guitar with Face Control
If your iPhone supports facial recognition, you can move the wah pedal on the Retro Wah guitar by moving your mouth while you play. When you record, any pedal movements you make with Face Control are also recorded.
Tap the Navigation button
in the control bar, tap the Sounds button, then tap Retro Wah.
Hold your iPhone 25–50 cm (10–20 inches) away from your face, then tap the Face Control button
.
The first time you use Face Control, GarageBand asks for permission to access the camera on your iPhone.
As you play, open and close your mouth to move the wah pedal up and down.
To turn Face Control off, tap the Face Control button again.
Note: GarageBand uses ARKit face tracking features to translate your facial expressions into instrument effect controls. Your face information is processed on device, and only music is captured during your performance.