Garageband Ipad Acoustic Guitar Amp

Play the Guitar in GarageBand for iPad. 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 customize the sound. Launch GarageBand for iPad and plug your guitar into the iRig. On the left of the screen is a ' 1/4' jack' button which lets you add a noise gate. Handy for those distorted tones. Next to it is the guitarist's best friend: the Tuner. No excuses for a flat g-string!

GarageBand User Guide for iPad

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 customize the sound.

Choose the sound of the Guitar

Garageband guitar adapter
  • Tap the guitar icon in the upper-left corner, then tap the sound you want to play. You can also swipe left or right to change to the previous or next sound.

Play chords

  1. Tap the Chords/Notes switch on the right to switch to Chords view.

  2. 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

  1. Turn the Autoplay knob to one of the numbered positions.

  2. 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.

  3. Tap the chord strip again to stop the pattern playing.

Guitar interface for garageband

Play individual notes

  1. Tap the Chords/Notes switch on the right to switch to Notes view.

  2. Tap the strings on the fretboard to play notes. You can also bend strings vertically to bend the pitch of a note up.

  3. 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

Garageband Guitar Sounds

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 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 iPad 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.

  1. Tap the guitar icon in the upper-left corner, then tap Retro Wah.

  2. Hold your iPad 10–20 inches (25–50 cm) 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 iPad.

  3. As you play, open and close your mouth to move the wah pedal up and down.

  4. 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.

If you’re a guitarist who’s just getting started with GarageBand and are dying to jump in a start recording, you may be overwhelmed with the different gear options available to you.

While many would argue that the only way to accurately capture an electric guitar performance is by mic’ing up your amplifier and hitting record, in my latest video I share 3 ways that you can directly input your guitar into your Mac so that you can record it in GarageBand.

Directly inputting (or ‘DI-ing’) your instrument in this way gives you more control over how your recording sounds if you choose to use Garageband’s built in amp designer and/or Audio Unit plug ins.

Check it out below:

You can find the gear mentioned in the video here:

TOOGOO(R) 3M Guitar to PC USB Recording Cable

IK Multimedia iRig Pro I/O

Garageband Ipad Acoustic Guitar Amp Chart

Focusrite Scarlett 2i2

Garageband Ipad Acoustic Guitar Amp Diagram

How do you prefer to record your guitars in GarageBand? What gear do you use? Leave a comment and let me know or come join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.