Macintosh Learning Center
by Shell Weinberg

  March 2005    If making music motivates you... GarageBand

Macintosh Learning Center
--- Shell Weinberg

Third Floor, Southeast corner
Leisure World Community Center
Laguna Woods Town Centre
Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., Monday thru Friday

If making music motivates you... GarageBand

I am not a musician... but I do enjoy listening to music. And although my well meaning mother tried to develop me into a clarinet player, and even later an accordion player, the talent never blossomed. So my musical abilities were limited to being a regular record/cassette/disc player.

But today, Apple Computer, Inc. gives me, and you, the opportunity to easily perform, record and create your own music using their exceptional software program called GarageBand. Chances are, if you purchased a new Macintosh computer within the past couple years, you have this application already installed and ready for you to use to create your very own, personal, one-of-a-kind musical composition.

There is no doubt you will find the program quite challenging. I have recently started the learning process to understand how to use GarageBand and, believe me, it is extremely difficult. Briefly said, mastering the navigation and many functions included in the program requires lots of time and concentration. However, if you have some musical background and experience playing an instrument, or can actually read or write music, I would say you have a distinct advantage over us less talented folks.

Although there are a number of books available for your guidance and instruction I am reading “GarageBand, THE MISSING MANUAL,” by David Pogue, and do recommend it.

The main component in this scheme is something called a loop. In fact, in this program there are 1,100 of these musical spare parts available to you. Each loop is a snippet of music and it plays when you click on one of the named buttons. When activated GarageBand begins playing the snippet, repeating it endlessly, and this explains why it is called a loop.

The musical loops have been prerecorded by professional musicians, playing instruments of all kinds, using different styles, moods, and keys.
An example might be:
Drums, Jazz, Relaxed, Lounge Jazz Drums 01. Another example:
Piano, Rock/Blues, Cheerful, 70’s Ballad Piano 05. Other elements of music making, such as tempo, time signatures (meter), beats-per-minute, and preferred key selection, are also available to you in this very sophisticated program.

Your composition develops as you drag&drop loops onto a track. Multiple tracks can be played at the same time thereby mixing your sounds. And, by the way, you can also input your own voice or the instrument you are playing into the composition as well.

The end result... your one-of-a-kind musical project can now be handled as a digital file. After exporting it to iTunes you will be able to burn it onto a CD, or email it to a friend (allow a lot of time), or publish it online, etc.