Garage Band

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Let's talk for a second about Garage Band. Everybody has heard of it. Nobody really knows how to use it. But it could be good for music class, right? 

R I G H T.

I'm going to outline just a few of my favorite ways to use Garage Band with my students that make my life just a little bit easier. 

1. Practice Tracks

As a choral teacher, you only get so much time with your students every day. Then add in that some of them aren't here, and half of them are at band instead, it can be a real pain to try to teach the notes and rhythms to everyone at once. You can do your best but...

Practice tracks are a way that I have found to make that struggle just a little less. 

There are two ways to do this when using Garage Band. You can either record yourself playing each part on a regular piano, or you can invest in a MIDI Keyboard. The MIDI keyboard can get pricy, but you can also get a good one for $150-200. This will plug directly into your computer, and pickup directly into garage band. It is seriously like magic.

Once you have decided on your instrument, you set up the number of tracks that you need. I always go by the number of voice parts that I have. One track for Soprano, one for Alto, so on and so forth. If the voice part splits, I will make a separate track. (Ex: S1, S2, A, T, B). 

I like to set a metronome when I record the tracks, which can be done right in Garage Band. Once the metronome is going, I record each voice part one at a time in their own respective track. By the end, you have the entire choral piece. 

You can then export these as an iTunes file, and adjust the volume on them so that your target voice part is the loudest, but they can hear the others for context. I usually will then post my finished tracks to a class website or Google Classroom. It has helped my choir immensely!!

2. Composition

Garage Band has many "loops" and tracks already downloaded that you can play with. This gives students freedom to try their skills at composing. Most devices that offer GarageBand have a built in mic, so after laying down some loops, students can record pre-written lyrics, poetry, or even record themselves playing other instruments on top of their loops.

Alternatively, I have done projects where we have imported a pre-recorded track into GarageBand, and then recorded right on top of that track.

As basic as Garage Band seems, the possibilities are endless. These 2 examples are simply scratching the surface of what garage band can offer in a music classroom!

(original post 9/17/17)