Common Questions and Their Answers

There are other guitar programs for the iPhone. Why should I buy this one?

Good question. We have used then all. Maybe you have, too. We think Guitar is a great app for these key reasons:

• Guitar is Easy to Play

  You can set up Guitar to play most songs in less than a minute. Less than 10 seconds if it is a song that you've set up before! You can instantaneously switch from playing a chord to a melody, from frets near the nut to the highest frets, all by sliding one finger. Watch demo videos and ask yourself if you can play so easily with any other guitar app.

• Guitar is Simple, Yet Powerful

  All your playing happens on the same screen, and there are only three main screens total. Further, avigating between them is iPhone-quick and iPhone-easy ... no getting lost in your workflow. And you still have quick access to over 1,500 built-in chords and tons of scales in just a few taps of a finger.

• Guitar Sounds Great

  Guitar uses custom-recorded, high-quality sounds. You have full sustain control, low-latency, and you can use Guitar while playing your iTunes music while learning a tune, enjoying just playing along, or jamming on some backing tracks.

Want more details? Feel free to read through the online documentation if you want to learn about more of Guitar's features.

What are all the built-in chords?

There are 26 of them, and they are: Major, Minor, 7, Minor 7, Major 7, 9, Minor 9, Major 9, 6, Minor 6, Sus 4, 7 sus4, Sus 2, Dim, Dim 7, 5 (Power Chord), Maj/3, Maj/5, add 9, Aug, mMaj7, mMaj9, m add9, m7#5, 7sus2, and 13.

And remember that each chord type is available in 5 variations on the fretboard, and in all 12 keys ... that's over 1,500 possible chords built-in. And you can always quickly define any custom chord you want.

You say there are 21 built-in scales. What are they?

21, and all available in all 12 keys! OK, here we go: Major, Minor, the standard modal scales (Dorian, Phrigian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian), Harmonic Minor, Harmonic Major, Pentatonic, Minor Pentatonic, Blues, Blues Heptatonic, Melodic Major, Melodic Minor, Hungarian Minor, Hungarian Major, Neopolitan Minor, Neopolitan Major, and Hungarian Gypsy.

The sustain is great, but how do I make the strings stop ringing?

This all about Button Lock on the Preferences screen, which gives you a simple tradeoff. With Button Lock set to ON, it is easier to hold the iPhone in one hand while playing it with the other. When you tap a button, it stays active and strings that you play (with the same hand) keep playing until the next chord or melody is played.

With Button Lock set to OFF, the strings only play while you hold a finger on a button, and mute when you take your finger off the button. Great for controlling sustain! It also means using at least two fingers to play. This works fine if the iPhone is on a table or on your lap. There are even creative ways to hold the iPhone with your "fretting" hand while strumming with the other, but that's not for everyone.

By the way, you can slide your "button finger" from button to button without muting the strings. This is great for fast chord transitions. The old chord doesn't stop when you move to a different chord button and the new chord doesn't start until you strum or tap the strings.

How do I show note names on the strings instead of fret numbers?

Go to the Preferences screen and find the "Chord String Labels" selection at the bottom of the screen. You can select "Note Names" there, or "Scale Degree" or "None" if you don't want those labels at all.

How do I play along with tunes on the iPod/Music player?

You can read how to do this in detail at the bottom of this page. You can also watch it happen in action in this video.