Use GarageBand with your MacBook to record your music

GarageBand is a complete recording studio right on your MacBook. You can create, arrange, and record your own music or even learn to play an instrument. You can add your own instruments, like a USB keyboard (musical, not computer!) or an electric guitar, or you can choose from the included instruments and sounds to create a musical showstopper.

Because recording studios can get pretty complex, we are just going to cover how to start a new GarageBand project and how to use GarageBand to learn to play music. You can learn more about recording, mixing, and creating music from the online video tutorials or from the GarageBand help file.

Start a New GarageBand Project

Launch the GarageBand application by clicking its icon in the Dock. You will be presented with a project window. Here you can select what type of project you want to start, such as one for voice, guitar, or keyboards or one to create a podcast or iPhone ringtone. Just like with the Magic iDVD, you can use the Magic GarageBand project to determine a theme for your music, like rock, reggae, or blues (among others). Here’s how to start a new project:

Click File > New or, if you’ve just opened GarageBand, select one of the templates to get you started, and then click Choose.
Name your project in the New Project dialog box and browse to the location where you want to save your project. Click Create.
Create your music in the main project screen. You can do so in the following ways: record music through your built-in microphone or an external microphone, through a connected electric guitar, or through a connected USB (or MIDI) keyboard.

Learn to Play Piano or Guitar

GarageBand can also help you learn to play an instrument. It comes with a basic lesson for both the piano and the guitar. You can download additional lessons or purchase more-advanced lessons online.

To get started, just select Learn to Play in the GarageBand dialog box. You can then select the instrument lesson that you want. A video window opens in which the lesson plays, and an animated representation of your instrument appears below it (frets for guitar, keyboard for the piano). You also have access to a control panel where you can stop, pause, play, or slow down your lesson. You can even record your own instrument as you play along.

Each lesson contains two parts, a learning lesson and a play-along lesson. In the learning lesson, the instructor explains to you how to play the song; in the playalong session, you can play through the piece or choose parts of it to practice. Downloaded lessons and lessons from the Artist series may include more parts. Just move your cursor over to the left side of the video screen and select which lesson you want to play.

Connect an Instrument to Play Along

You won’t get much out of the lessons if you can’t play along, so you can use these steps to connect an instrument to GarageBand. Open a lesson and then use the following steps to add your instrument. A guitar is used in the example steps, but you can connect a keyboard in a similar fashion.

Click Setup in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Choose the input source for your guitar from the My Input Device pop-up menu. If you used the audio input port to connect your guitar, select Guitar. If you are playing using your MacBook’s microphone, choose Internal Mic. If you are using an external microphone connected to your computer, choose External Mic.
Click Setup again to return to your lesson.

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