garage band We used the app called Garage Band to create a song using our name as lyrics. There was a variety of different instruments to choose from. We recorded both our first and last name as lyrics and added instruments to it. You can control the tempo of your song. You can chose between playing cords or notes for some instruments. This app allows you to create practically any song your mind can imagine.
Before I used Garage Band for these project I knew barely anything about it. I was really intimidated by all the options to chose from. As you can see my first few projects are a little on the rough side, but that leaves room for improvement. Garage Band is great for beginners like me who know very little about music. I love working in this app. It is easy to add, edit, or take away any part of your project. Garage Band has been one of my favorite apps to work in. The variety of music you can create from the app is amazing. Each student in the class has created a music piece that sounds nothing like any of the other students'. In the future I'm going to work on the order of instruments and the volume of each instrument more in depth to create the most appealing music. |
FiRst and last name project |
Spooky Sounds
We used garage band to create a variety of different songs. "Spooky Sounds" was a project made of 8 different sounds(either sound effects or instruments.) I chose instruments like the piano and violin that can give music a spooky feel. This project tells a story. It starts off slower and gradually increases to a faster pace and slightly more intense beat as the song goes on. It starts and ends with the same single instrument to show the beginning and end of the song. Finding 8 different sounds that went well together got a little frustrating after the 5th or 6th sound because I was running out of ideas. After playing around with some of the instruments it was interesting to see how some spooky sound effects are created in things like horror movies. For this project I used Cinematic, Grand Piano, Liverpool, and the Classic Studio Kit. |
Garage Band drumming project
Garage Band many instruments to chose from and each instrument comes with multiple ways to play. For example the string section of the instruments come with 5 choices of instruments. The drums are the same way. You can choose from smart drums and regular drums. The difference between the two is with smart drums you click and drag on the instruments and the app will play the instrument for you, you just have to select the volume and complexity of each instrument and the song will be created for you. With drums you play by hand and you control every aspect of making a song from the drums. I was much more patient with this project because I have learned it takes time to get familiar with the tools and apps we are using to create each project. I really improved on timing from start to finish. Even towards the end I wasn't where I wanted to be so I clicked on the edit button of the section I created and I could move each individual note exactly where I wanted it to be. You could also adjust length of each note. Throughout this project I didn't take many risks. In the future I'm going to go out of my comfort zone and add more to my project to make it stand out. I was happy about the neatness of both of the projects. I spent a lot of time editing both pieces to make them sound just right. If someone were to look at my piece I think that is something that would stick out. Both projects keep the same beat through all the 8 bars.
I used regular drums for both of the projects above. I learned the parts of the drums and how to merge record to make playing simpler. Merge recording means recording separate sections and then adding them together to make it sound like you played it all at the same time. This makes it much easier to create an awesome sounding drum project, especially for beginners. I learned a lot about drums and what makes a beat sound well thought out. I had the choice to play Classic Studio, Vintage, and Live Rock Kit. I chose to work with the Classic Studio Kit.
1st 8 bars: I first started off with a simple bass drum beat for the 1 and 3 count(out of 4 counts.) I then added the snare drum for the 2 and 4 count. The drums played every other beat and had a dramatic pitch difference. I needed something to spice up the song so I added the hi-hat cymbal and played it every beat. 2nd 8 bars: The hi-hat was the star of the show for this section of the project. I added the hi-hat cymbal to every beat once again, but at a slower pace. With the 1 and 3 beat of every hi-hat I added the snare drum to play on the same beats as the hi-hat. I added the middle tom-tom to play with both the hi-hat and snare drum on the 1 and 3 beat as well. The bass drum played on every 1st beat of the 4 count and played slightly before the 2nd count. |
For the second project we used the drum machine instrument. The drum machine has a couple different sounds then the regular drums do like clapping, shaking, and a closed and open hi-hat. You can chose between the classic, house, or hip hop drum machine. I chose the house drum machine. You can also adjust the resolution on the drum machine. I used the merge recording tactic that I learned in the previous project.
1st 8 bars: The mid played every beat(out of a 4 count) and the closed hi-hat played in between each beat played by the mid. The low played every 2 and 4 count immediately after the mid. The snare drum played immediately after the low. There was a clap along with every other mid(2 and 4 count). 2nd 8 bars: The low played on every first count, the snare and bass played on every second, the bass drum played on every third, and the crash cymbal played on every four count. The snare drum played immediately after the first count. The mid played in between the second and third count. The bass played right before the third beat. |
Thing link
Above is the basic drum beat I created with Garage Band. This video uses the instructions I gave in the thinglink project.
THINGLINK URL
⬇️⬇️⬇️ https://www.thinglink.com/scene/703238094886797314 |
Thinglink may just be the greatest app ever. It can be used for almost anything. It's perfect for a presentation, lecture, or tutorial. It's a hands on way to teach or show someone exactly what you're trying to explain. My first encounter with this app wasn't pretty. I knew nothing about the app before hand. I was extremely frustrated with the results of my project because I wasn't using the app correctly. After taking the time to learn how to use the app I was more than happy with the way my project turned out.
After learning all about the drum sets in garage band we had to make a few songs with the drums. After that we then had to make a thinglink to explain how to make a drum beat. We started off using a picture of the garage band drum set and labeled all the parts. Thinglink is a very interactive app so whoever is viewing your thinglink can click on certain parts of the picture to go to other pictures, videos, website, pretty much anywhere the creator wants the nubbin(funny word, I know) to lead to. The three most basic parts of the drums are the hi-hat, the snare drum, and the floor drum. Each part of the drum had a label on it even if it wasn't a basic part. I put clips of me giving instructs on how to play the three basic parts on each of the instruments. Some kids in the class used actual drum sets, others used clapping or hitting a table, I used an upside down garbage can and a pen! I tried to keep it very simple and easy to use because that's how I would like to look at it if I was trying to learn. When people look at this project I want them to think that they could easily learn because of the simple and neat layout of the thinglink image. After using thinglink I learned that I have learned a lot about both garage band and thinglink. I didn't realize all the different things I learned until I put it all into words. For future project I want to do something totally different then anyone else in the class. I want my projects to stand out and I want to make the most of learning how to use each app. |
- Tranforming the blues
4 Steps
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Garage Band has been a great tool for creating music in this class. The vastness of abilities the app has is incredible. As you can see from all the projects on this page Garage Band can help you create a song with your own lyrics, a drum beat, a blues tune or even a spooky sounding song. The options are endless. For this project we had to create a blues styled song. The song had to be 24 bars, both sets of 12 sounding different from the other.
After using garage band in this class I am much more comfortable now then I was in the start. Even though this project was much different from any of the other projects I have done in garage band it is getting easier and easier to use this app because you can use skills from different projects in future one. We followed the same 4 steps for both sets of 12 bars. For the first 12 bars I chose the classic rock organ, the smart drum hip hop machine, and liverpool all on auto play. I had never used the classic rock organ before but it worked perfectly for this specific project. I added my own solo using bass notes in the strings section on the minor blues and then turned the few notes into a loop to cover the rest of the 12 bars, but I wanted it to sound even throughout the song. I also added a second liverpool beat and sequence bass to give my song something a little different from anything else. The second 12 beats used a lot of the same instruments but sounded much different. I adjusted things like distortions on the piano, and I used the blue echo option on the guitar. I used 2 liverpool beats like I did in the first 12 beats but I used totally different notes. I also added the roots rock instrument. I used the sequence bass and hip hop drum machine but you used totally different notes and I adjusted the mix and cutoff on the sequence bass and used different instruments for the drum machine. This project has been a fun one! Auto play was my best friend throughout this project. Since I started working with garage band in this class I've noticed different songs and sound effects from movies or TV shows that sound like something you could create on garage band. I think this has been one of my best pieces that I have created in this class. I put together not only what I learned from this specific project, but what I have learned about garage band this whole semester. This piece compared to my first shows my growth from start to present in this class. For this project I added something extra to make my song the best it could. I spent a lot of time making sure it sounded neat and making sure every note sounded like it was right where it was supposed to be. In the future I want to improve on doing solos and finding what notes sound best together. |
Jam Session on Garage band
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