Quick Start

How about a quick blues song for starters? Hang on tight, we're going to go fast! And if this all goes by too quickly, please read the other chapters for a calmer description of iShred and all its features. A video that shows some of this chapter in action, along with a quick blues performance, can be found here.

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Tap on the iShred icon to start the app. Once the start-up animation has stopped, the program and its sounds are fully loaded and ready to use. Tap the General Menu button in the lower left of the screen. Select "New Song" from the pop-up menu that appears, and "Yes" on the dialog box that follows. You now have a new song with 10 blank buttons, six short strings with labels, and a selection wheel set to "Blank."

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Move the first wheel to "Chord" and it transforms into a chord picker. We'll leave the first button as a C Natural Major chord. Now tap the second button which is blank. This time select an F Major chord. Follow this with chord selections for C 7th, F 7th, G Major, and G7th, and your buttons should look like this:

(By the way, that last wheel lets you select other variations of the chord. They are different fingerings that go higher up the fretboard. Feel free to try some out!)

OK, you have your chords picked out. Now you need to find the right sound. iShred makes this easy. But first, save the song by tapping the Song Menu button in the lower right and selecting "Save Song and Exit." Note that the options that appear in the pop-up menus always apply to your current action.

Tap the Song Menu button again and select "Effects" from the list. Here is your tone tweaking arsenal. Check out the chapter on Effects for all the details. Adjusting effects can be addictive so remember to hit the "Done" button and come back to the main screen once your effects are set.

Now on to strumming a 12-bar blues. As you strum the strings, press the chord buttons in this order:

        C   F   C   C7

        F   F7  C   C7  

        G   F   C   G7

You can tap the strings to play arpeggios, and strum lower (louder) or higher (softer) on the strings to change the volume. Note that the finger you have on the chord buttons can quickly slide betweeen chords ... you don't have to "lift a finger" between chords. (When you're ready, try turning "Button Lock" off on the Settings screen to get more sustain control.)

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After playing a bit, you might find that the order of these chord buttons is a bit awkward. Let's edit the song to add a couple of scales for playing lead, change the button order, and rename the song to something less generic. To edit this song, tap the Song Menu button in the lower right and select "Edit" from the pop-up menu that appears.

Select a blank button and set the wheel to Scale, then select C Natural "Mxldian" (the Mixolydian mode of C which can work well for a blues). Select another blank button, set the first wheel to the "Chrom" setting (for a Chromatic scale), and select C Natural "Mxldian" again. We'll use these later for playing lead lines and harmonies.

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Rearranging the buttons is easy. Just hold your finger down on one and slide it to the position you want. (A yellow glow will appear under your finger as you do this.) The button in that position and the one that you first pressed swap places. You could try reordering them as shown here, but there is no right or wrong way to do it ... just do what you find easiest to use.

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Finally, rename your song by tapping on the song name ("New Song") in the middle bottom of the screen. This brings up a keyboard. Backspace over the existing name and type in "My Blues Song." Hit the "Done" button and your song is renamed. Then save all this fine work by tapping the Song Menu button and selecting "Save Song and Exit."

Now experiment away as you play! Try the Scale and Chromatic Scale buttons to play lead lines. Or use more than one finger and play duet lines, or hammer-on's and pull-off's on a single string. You can also slide up and down on one string. While you're at it, why not play along with some of your iTunes music?

To play along with your iTunes music, close iShred (don't worry, it will remember where you left off), start playing some music, then hit the Home button, start up iShred, and play along! (If that doesn't work, you may need to adjust some of your settings as described at the end of the Playing iShred chapter.)

There's plenty more to learn, and you can read all the details in this set of Help files ... or just dive in and figure it out as you go. Either way, enjoy!