Questions, answered.

Wasn't this app called WoodShed?

Yes — same app, same developer, new name. WoodShed became GuideTone in 2026. Nothing else changed: your projects, recordings, saved loops and settings are all still there, your purchase carries over, and the app updates in place from the App Store, Google Play or the Microsoft Store like any other update. You don't need to buy anything again or reinstall.

What's a guide tone?

The 3rd and the 7th of a chord — the two notes that carry a progression and tell your ear where the harmony is going. Play just those through a tune and the changes are still recognizable; play the roots alone and they aren't. That's the idea the app is built on: show you the part that actually matters in a song, so the practice can start.

How do I get a song into GuideTone?

Tap Add → Choose from Files… and pick a file from Files, iCloud Drive or an AirDrop you've saved — and from your device's file picker on Android and Windows. GuideTone reads common audio formats — MP3, AAC/M4A, WAV, AIFF, FLAC — and draws a waveform so you can see the music. If a file won't import, convert it to MP3 or M4A and try again.

Songs from a streaming subscription won't appear. An Apple Music or Spotify download is copy-protected and can't be opened by another app, so the picker won't list it — that's the licensing, not a limitation of GuideTone. Purchased downloads, CD rips, DRM-free files and your own recordings all import normally.

What audio files can I import?

The common formats your device itself can read — MP3, M4A/AAC and WAV among them. On import they're converted to a compact format, so projects stay small whatever you started from.

Sheet music is a different door. A score from a notation app, a MusicXML or .mxl file, opens from Add → Open a score file… and lands on your Scores shelf, engraved. A PDF of sheet music can't be imported: it's a picture of the page, not the notes.

Where are my files stored?

On your device, inside the app: each song you import becomes a project, with its audio saved compactly as AAC (.m4a). Importing copies your file in, so the original stays exactly where it was.

Can GuideTone download songs from YouTube?

No — and that's deliberate. Recordings on YouTube and other streaming services are licensed to those platforms, not to us, so building a downloader into GuideTone would put every user's practice room on the wrong side of the recordings' licenses. We'd rather keep your practice room clean.

What works instead:

• Import music you own — purchased downloads, CD rips, or your own recordings.
• Bandcamp and many artists' stores sell DRM-free downloads that import perfectly.
• Record yourself or your band and shed over the take.

How does the free trial work?

On the App Store (Mac, iPad, iPhone) and Google Play, GuideTone is free to download and includes a 14-day free trial with every feature unlocked — then a single one-time purchase keeps it forever. No subscription. On the Microsoft Store, GuideTone is a paid app with the Store's own 15-day trial.

I already bought it — how do I restore on a new device?

Open GuideTone and choose Restore Purchases on the unlock screen, signed in to the same store account you bought with. Your purchase re-applies at no cost. On Windows there's nothing to restore: install GuideTone from the Microsoft Store with the same Microsoft account and it opens unlocked.

How do I get a refund?

Purchases are handled by the store you bought from: Apple at reportaproblem.apple.com, Google via the Play Store's order history, Microsoft via your Microsoft account's order page.

Why does GuideTone download something the first time I separate a song?

The audio-analysis models (stem separation, beat and chord detection) download once, on first use, and are stored on your device. The download contains no personal information — and after it, every practice feature works fully offline.

Can GuideTone show me the lyrics — and can I use it for karaoke?

Yes to both. Press Detect on the Karaoke page and GuideTone listens to the song and writes down what is sung, on your own device, then lines every word up with the audio. You get a chord sheet with the words under the changes, to read from across the room or a music stand: each word lights as it is sung, and the page turns itself a phrase at a time. For karaoke, pull the vocal down on the Mixer — the band keeps playing and the words stay on the page.

The words are transcribed from the recording, so how clean they come back depends on the mix. If one comes back wrong, you can correct it in the sheet and the fix sticks.

Some chords look wrong or missing.

Chord detection listens to the recording, so a dense mix, heavy effects, free timing or an unusual voicing can fool it — a close-but-not-quite chart is normal for tricky material.

The fix is a tap away: open the Chart, tap Edit, and correct the chord. Your edits are saved with the song and show up everywhere the chords do. If the whole chart seems off, re-detect from the chord badge — over a sheet you've edited, the Detect window warns you first, because re-detecting replaces your edits.

I play guitar and don't read chord symbols. Can GuideTone show me the fingerings?

Yes. Once a song has chords, the shapes lane draws the grip for the chord sounding now, with the next few reading ahead — and a card you can float, drag and size for a music stand. Every dot prints the job it does in the chord: root, third, fifth, the tension. Simplify trims a busy chart to plain triads or sevenths, and the capo moves only the shapes, never the song's real chord names. The lane is there by default; the guitar button beside the chord strip hides it if you'd rather read symbols.

What is the Chord Guide?

A reference for every chord, on a guitar neck and a piano keyboard. Pick a root and a quality and it draws the shape, prints the note each string or key actually sounds, and spells the whole thing out in words beside the diagram — position, note, interval, and the interval's long name. Underneath, the other positions up the neck (or root position and its inversions on piano) run as a contact sheet.

There are two ways in. From the Player's chord lane it opens on the chord you're hearing and fronts that song's own chords, capo and all. From Tools it's the plain catalog — no song attached, which is the point when you just want to look a chord up. Left-handed diagrams are one switch, and it flips every diagram in the app at once.

A few chords with big tensions (9ths, 13ths) have no curated guitar grip. Rather than invent one, the guide says so and offers View on keyboard — or use Simplify to get a shape you can actually hold.

The chord diagrams make sound. What am I hearing?

Recorded instruments — a nylon-string classical guitar and a grand piano — not a synthesiser. Tap a chord to strum it, drag across the strings or keys to pluck the notes one at a time, and tap again to damp. On the Player, switching on the pick strums each chord as the song reaches it.

Two things worth knowing. The instruments are a one-time download of about 31 MB rather than part of the app, fetched quietly after you first open it — so a tap in the first moments after installing can land silent while the bytes arrive. And the guitar assumes standard tuning for now.

They can never end up in a recording: a pluck is mixed in after the recorder's tap, so a take physically cannot contain one.

Why do stems process on my device instead of "in the cloud"?

Two reasons you'll like: privacy — your music never leaves your device — and independence — separation works on a plane, in a basement practice room, anywhere. Longer songs take longer on older hardware; that's the trade.

I hear a delay or echo while recording.

Use wired headphones while recording. Bluetooth adds latency that makes playback feel out of sync — GuideTone shows a reminder when it detects Bluetooth output.

Why does playback lag while I'm recording?

Bluetooth headphones add a noticeable delay between the app and your ears, and an AirPlay or Cast speaker — a TV, a Sonos — adds a couple of seconds. That's the wireless connection, not the app. For tight timing while recording or counting in, use wired headphones or the device's own speaker.

If a take still sits slightly early or late, fine-tune the recording offset in Settings → Recording.

Why is my recording quiet?

1. Arm the mic and watch the meter while you play — if it barely moves, drag the gain up until you sit in the green.
2. After you stop, make sure the Mic fader in the review's Balance is up, and that Backing isn't drowning it out.
3. Check the device is using the mic you expect — some headsets have a weaker one — and play closer to it.

GuideTone isn't picking up my microphone.

Grant microphone access in your system's privacy settings (macOS: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone; iOS/Android: the app's permissions), then restart GuideTone. The tuner and recording both need it. If the tuner still seems deaf to soft playing, raise the Sensitivity slider on the tuner's bench.

My bass reads an octave too high in the tuner.

Switch the tuner to Bass mode rather than Chromatic. A bass low E is a very deep note, and built-in microphones — especially on phones and laptops — pick up almost none of its lowest part, which can lead a chromatic tuner to hear the note an octave above. Bass mode knows to listen down there. Tapping the string's lamp to pin it helps most of all, and raising Sensitivity helps if the note fades quickly.

Does GuideTone run on my phone?

Yes — you asked, we built it. GuideTone runs on iPhone and Android phones (since 1.1.7/1.1.8), alongside iPad, Mac, and Windows. The whole practice room, sized for one hand — including phone-sized sheet music.

Does my library sync across devices?

No. Every project you import or record lives on the device you made it on, which is also why practice always works offline. To use a song on another device, export its audio and import it there. Everything GuideTone does — playback, stems, recording — runs on your device, not on a server.

What does GuideTone need to run?

Any reasonably recent device: macOS, iPadOS/iOS, Android, or Windows. An internet connection is needed only for the first-time model download; everything after works offline.

Can I use GuideTone offline?

Yes. Once a song is imported, everything about practicing it works offline: playback, tempo and key, loops, the metronome, the tuner, and recording. A few things download what they need the first time you use them, and need a connection just that once: separating stems, detecting chords, detecting lyrics, and the instrument sounds the Chord Guide and the Guitar play. You also need a connection to unlock the app or restore a purchase.

Do all four platforms get the same features?

Yes. GuideTone is one app on one shared engine, so a feature is written once and lands on macOS, iPad, iPhone, Android and Windows alike — everything on this site, the Tools rack, the Chord Guide and the sounding diagrams included.

What can vary is when. The App Store, Google Play and the Microsoft Store are three separate review queues and Windows builds separately, so on release week one platform sometimes trails the others by a few days. It catches up.

Where does my music go?

Nowhere. Your audio, recordings, and projects stay on your device. The only data collected is anonymous usage and crash reporting to improve the app — with an opt-out in Settings → Privacy. Full details in the Privacy Policy.