So I wanted to shuffle some holiday music on my newly-well-tagged collection in the Music app on my iPhone. But I could not for the life of me figure out how to do it. When I viewed genres, I would get a listing organized by album and have to drill down to play any song. That’s no good! And there seemed to be no way to simply view all the songs individually in a list for any particular genre.

But as it turns out, there is a way – and in true and occasionally (I must confess) annoying – Apple fashion, it’s so hidden that it’s almost a secret. And now I shall reveal the secret! But even better, I’ll share the even easier way that involves one step instead of (potentially) six.

(A shout-out, by the way, to Carlos Perez, and his post on the Apple forums where I found the “official” multi-step solution.)

In the Music app on your iOS device, tap “My Music” in the menu at the bottom. On this screen, the first thing you should see is three items from your Recently Added music, with larger cover images. Just below that is a centered, red title, with a tiny down-arrow to the right of it, indicating what’s in the list that follows — Artists, Albums, etc.

Tap that title and select “Genres” if it doesn’t already say that. Then look down the list for the particular genre you’d like to play, but DON’T tap on its title —just tap the picture on the left. Music from that genre will start to play!

There’s just one step left now. Tap the bar on the bottom that indicates the currently playing song. It will expand up. Make sure the shuffle icon has been selected. And that’s it!

However, there is an even easier way. Just use Siri!

For example, I can say, “Play some R&B”. In a mere moment, I get the exact same result as the steps above – but with just one step instead of (potentially) six.

So, with that… go ahead and enjoy your musical genres!