Playing with the software guitars on GarageBand

Unlike the keyboard and drum instruments that we covered previously, both the guitar and bass guitar instruments in GarageBand for the iPad only come in "smart" versions. While this means that the instruments are partly automated, you can play notes string by string and

make your own unique music

. Go to Smart Guitar and you'll see a guitar with six strings pop up similar to the layout of the Smart Keyboard.

From here, you'll notice that the six strings run underneath different chords. You can swipe down from one of these chords to play all of the notes that make up that chord or just play individual strings from that chord. You can also tap the chord to play all strings simultaneously, though that sounds unnatural as that's not how guitars work in real life.

As with the Smart Keyboards, you can turn on

Autoplay to have GarageBand

automatically play a melody, move the dial to hear different patterns, or even change the type of guitar that you're playing. If you switch to an electric guitar, you'll be able to turn effects pedals on and off to tweak your sound. Also, if you want to try a less automated mode, you can flick the switch from chords down to notes. In this mode, you'll see a more traditional guitar layout where you can play individual notes and even bend notes. You can also tap Scale to pick a scale that GarageBand will keep you from straying from.

The Smart Bass instrument works much the same way as the Smart Guitar. All the options are there including Autoplay, Scales, the ability to play notes or chords, and the option to switch your bass to a different style of instrument.