Play muted notes or chords on the Smart GuitarĪs a non-guitarist, GarageBand’s Smart Guitar is a useful feature because it allows me to play chords with the touch of a finger by tapping on chord strips that appear on the screen. That’s a total of twelve different patterns for each instrument!Ħ. Tap the chord strip with three fingers to hear yet another variation. If you tap a chord strip with two fingers instead of one, GarageBand will give you a variation of the Autoplay pattern that’s currently selected. If you turn on the Autoplay dial, GarageBand will play a ready-made pattern for you based on the chord strip that’s selected on the screen and there are 4 different Autoplay settings on the dial. Smart Instruments (choose between guitar, bass, strings or keyboard) have chord strips on the screen that allow you to play an entire chord with the touch of a finger. This one was a total surprise to me! GarageBand’s Smart Instrument Autoplay function is a super-useful one. Every Autoplay pattern on the dial has 3 variations (that’s a total of 12!) Drag the second automation point downwards to create the fade-outĮssentially, the automation line is a visual representation of the dynamics for that instrument.įor a more detailed explanation of how automation works, take a look at the information on the Apple website here.ĥ.For a fade-out, you’ll need to add two points – one at the position you want the fade-out to start and one at the very end of the musical phrase Drag the Edit Automation button (it looks like a pencil) to the right to lock it into the “on” position, then tap on the automation line to draw points. To create the “curve” you will draw automation points on the line and then drag them up or down to create the desired effect.To create a fade-out, you need to make the line go diagonally downwards at the end This line is a visual representation of the current volume level. All of the tracks will expand vertically and the volume automation curve (it’s a line at first!) will appear on each track.Tap the track header (the instrument icon) and then tap Automation in the menu that appears.

Have you ever wanted to add volume automation curves (the technical term for adding automatic fade-ins and fade-outs) into your GarageBand tracks? This feature is “hidden” in the Track header area for the instrument.

This is a great way to add interest to your Smart Drum patterns. The snare pattern will be more complex in the last part of the phrase, giving the effect of a drum fill. One thing I didn’t realise at first is that during the recording you can shift the instruments in the grid – let’s say, move the hi-hat to the far right – and GarageBand will record the changing rhythm.Ī good way of using this is to start with the snare drum placed in the middle of the grid, hit record and then drag the snare to the right side towards the end of an 8-measure phrase. You can then hit the record button to record the pattern in your project. Drag it to the left side for a more simple rhythm. The Smart Drums lets you build a rhythmic pattern by dragging instruments onto a grid.Įach instrument plays a ready-made pattern and if you place the instrument on the right side of the grid, the pattern becomes more complex. I often use GarageBand’s Smart Drums to create a super-fast drum pattern. Vary the Smart Drums while recording a pattern Note down ideas for the arrangement such as the instrumentation or form of the songģ.the type of microphone or audio interface) Make notes about which external hardware equipment you used when recording each track (ie.Write out the chord progression for each section of the song.The only drawback is that you can’t keep the NotePad open while playing an instrument or recording. There’s a blank space for you to use for your notes and you can access them at any time by coming back into the Settings menu. Like the desktop version of GarageBand, the iOS app has an inbuilt notepad that can be used to store compositional notes within the project. Use the Notepad to write chords, lyrics and notes Tap on the GarageBand icon to see the settings for that app and then turn on Keyboard Note Labels.Ģ. You’ll need to go to your overall iPad Settings and scroll down until you can see the GarageBand app in the list on the left. The option to turn note names on or off is a little hidden. True confession time: I only found out recently, too. Keyboard tip #1: turn on note name labels!ĭid you know that this was possible in the GarageBand app? Did you know about these 9 cool new 'hidden' GarageBand for iPad tricks? Click To Tweet

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