Garage Band

Being a Mac enthusiast and a musician, I chose to blog about Garage Band for my third and final emerging technology post.  When you open Garage Band, you get a menu that looks like this:

From there, you can choose to record an instrument or voice, edit previous files, take a lesson, or create a podcast.

The lessons available with Garage Band are wonderful, and the beginning piano and guitar lessons are included free with the software.  Additional lessons can be purchased through Garage Band and iTunes, and they also offer Artist Lessons, where performers teach you how to play their songs.

When you choose the Songwriting option, you are given all of your tracks on one screen.  Here, you can choose which tracks you wish to include, and add/edit/delete as necessary.  Each track is separate, but is shown concurrently.  The Songwriting tool looks like this:

 Within Garage Band, you can choose to record your own electric/acoustic instruments or built-in software instruments, add your own vocals, and edit, arrange, and mix the song.  No recording studio necessary!

Garage Band is so simple and user-friendly, my husband (an elementary music and band teacher) frequently uses it with his 4-6th grade students to create their own songs, as well as class compilations.  He burns the student work onto CDs, and the kids can take the work of the entire class home as a souvenir.  

Sharing songs you have created in Garage Band is a breeze!  You can export your song to your own iTunes library, create a ringtone for your iPhone, burn your song onto a CD, or create a podcast with your work.

Apple has free, online tutorials here, and the super cool artist-guided guitar and piano lessons are located here.

 Musicians, aspiring musicians, and techies with no musical skills at all can all enjoy Garage Band.  The software takes the expense and the anxiety out of producing high-quality amateur musical recordings and top-notch podcasts.  Rock on!