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If you know a bit of music theory you might want to change these chords, which is done via the Settings menu – an Edit Chords button will appear when a suitable instrument is selected. Of the eight chords shown, the fifth one from the left will be the Key that you set in the Settings menu, while the others are related chords that work well in that key. This setting isn't applied permanently, so you can go back at any time to adjust the Quantisation setting for a particular instrument. To do so, tap the Instrument Settings button (an icon resembling three sliders), followed by Quantisation, and choose a grid resolution or select None. However, you may want to lock to a different grid, or keep the timing of the original performance. By default, the app shifts each note so it's locked to a grid of 1/16th notes, which means a bar divided into 16 subdivisions. When you come to record, it's worth thinking about whether you want GarageBand to correct the timing of your performance – this is true for any instrument where you're performing on the touchscreen.

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There's a choice of three acoustic kits, plus three vintage drum machines. The same works for the hi hat and ride cymbals. If you're ready for a little refinement, try hitting different parts of the snare drum to hear its various sounds. It takes a fair amount of coordination and practice to play conventional drum patterns, but there's lots of fun to be had channelling Animal from The Muppets and just going nuts. You can see a drum kit, and all you have to do is hit it. You'll find various additional setting to vary the speed, direction and range of the notes. Turn it on and hold down a few notes and you'll hear rippling cascades of music, locked to the tempo of the track. The remaining button that resembles five little steps is the arpeggiator. The button on the right makes the keyboard wider or narrower, and has an option to show two rows. Major and Minor are the most common types, but there are lots of others available if you fancy something a bit fruitier. If you're struggling to hit the right note, tap the Scale button and select a preset scale. Enabling pitch mode also unlocks the ability to change the tone of some sounds by sliding a finger vertically along the key. It's even possible to have two or more notes that follow independent trajectories – something that's impossible with a conventional MIDI-based instrument. It creates gliding pitch bends that follow your finger movement around the keyboard. Pitch mode isn't available for piano and organ sounds, but it appears for the other categories. Scroll mode lets you shift the keyboard to the right or left to reveal lower or higher notes. The default is glissando mode, which behaves in the same way you'd expect from a physical keyboard. The centre button determines what happens when you glide a finger across the keyboard. For example, you might want piano notes to be sustained for most of a performance, but to cut them off each time the chord changes. This control is a switch that can be left either on or off, but it can also be used as a button to momentarily reverse its setting. Sustain is like a sustain pedal on a piano, so enabling it makes notes ring out after the key has been released. Starting from the left, the octave buttons jump to higher and lower parts of the keyboard. Just above its virtual keys is a row of buttons that determine how it responds to user input. We've already touched on the Keyboard, but there's actually quite a lot of sophistication in this seemingly simple instrument.