9 Things You Didn’t Know About GarageBand For iPad

9 Things You Didn't know about GarageBand for iPad

9 Things You Didn't know about GarageBand for iPad

While preparing for an all-day iPads in the Music Classroom workshop, I ended up reading pretty much all of the GarageBand for iPad manual. Reading manuals is something I quite enjoy (strange, I know) because I always manage to pick up new tips. I thought it might be useful to share some of the less-obvious GarageBand for iPad tricks here.

If you have any other GarageBand tips, please share them in the comments below.

1. Drums #1: play patterns with ease

If you touch and hold two fingers on the bass drum, it will play a repeating patten (the first and third beat in the bar). Move your fingers apart slightly to play crotchets and further apart again to play quavers. It also works on the snare, but the repeating pattern is faster: crotchets, quavers and semiquavers.

2. Drums #2: increase and decrease volume

When playing a repeating pattern with two fingers, slide your finger upwards to make the pattern louder or downwards to make the pattern softer.

3. Strings #1: tips for pizz

When playing pizzicato chords on the Smart Strings, it’s all about the release. The chord sounds on the release of your finger, not on the tap. Touching different sections of the chord strip allows you to play different inversions of the same chord.

4. Strings #2: all about arco

Stroke your finger up and down the chord strip in the Smart Strings to play sustained chords. Stroking faster will result in a louder chord and stroking slower will give a softer chord.

5. Strings #3: re-voice a chord

You can alter the voicings of chords in the Smart Strings by tapping on the instrument icons at the top of the screen to remove them from the chord.  For instance, remove the upper strings by tapping on the violins and the viola so that you’re left with a moody, dark chord played by only the celli and basses.

6. Quick switch: track view to instrument

When in Track View, you can double-tap on instrument icon to go quickly to Instrument View.

7. Instant playback

When in Track View you can double-tap in the ruler at the top of the screen to move the playhead to that position and start playback all in one go.

8. Keyboard: customise and save keyboard sounds

A number of the keyboard instruments allow you to customise their playback sound. You can add reverb, change the attack, add delay and so on. Once you’ve made some changes you can save your settings: tap the instrument icon in the middle of the screen, tap Save and give your custom instrument a name. Tap Done and your new instrument will appear in the Custom tab.

9. Edit guitar chords

When using the Smart Guitar (or any of the other melodic Smart instruments), you can edit the chords that are available. Even if the ones you need are already present, you may want to edit the order in which they appear so that it’s easier for students to play. To edit chords, tap the Song Settings button (looks like a spanner) and then tap Edit Chords. Tap one of the chord strips on the instrument and then edit the chord by swiping the chord wheels above. You can choose the chord, its quality and an alternate bass note.  Editing the chord strips in one instrument will edit them for all Smart Instruments in that project.

What about you?

Do you have any tips of your own that you’d like to share? Add them in the comments section below.

Download a copy of this list

Would you like to take a copy of this with you? Click on the download button below and we’ll send a copy straight to your email inbox. You’ll also receive weekly music tech tips and news (if you don’t already). You can unsubscribe at any time.

13 Comments

  1. Amy M. Burns April 10, 2012 at 12:09 pm - Reply

    Great article Katie!

  2. Eldar Skjørten April 13, 2012 at 4:39 am - Reply

    Great tips Katie! You just inspired me to read more in the manual. 🙂

    • Marianne H May 10, 2012 at 2:22 pm - Reply

      Your tips save me so much time! Thank you Katie

      • Katie May 11, 2012 at 8:33 am - Reply

        Thanks Marianne!

  3. Megan Iemma May 15, 2012 at 10:51 am - Reply

    The new Jammin’ features look good, yes it is limited to four people, but a good basis to start.

  4. Christian July 20, 2012 at 8:18 pm - Reply

    Hy,

    Great tips! Thanks.
    I have one little (?) question: is it possible to increase the length of a track at the beginning of a allready recorded song in order to record a intro? Dragging all the song is verry dificult and amost impossible due to the many blocks…
    Thanks for reply.

    • Katie July 31, 2012 at 11:04 am - Reply

      Hi Christian – the easiest way would probably be to duplicate the entire section that you’ve already recorded (go into the Song Sections area to do that) and then delete the contents of the first section and make that your intro. You can adjust the length of the intro section (ie. make it shorter) in the Song Sections area too.
      – Katie

      • James M. August 28, 2013 at 9:17 pm - Reply

        I sure hope the next updates of Garageband will address issues like this. I’ve just began exploring the app and found a lot of rooms for improvement.

        • Katie September 2, 2013 at 12:37 pm - Reply

          Yes – it’s just a couple of things that frustrate me. Mainly this file-sharing business. Makes it difficult to do such a simple thing like transfer your song off the iPad! I keep hoping there will be an update too. – Katie

  5. Tony November 18, 2013 at 1:49 pm - Reply

    I am stumped about how to plug in a real guitar and still hear the track. Anyone know?

    • Katie November 19, 2013 at 12:24 pm - Reply

      Hi Tony,

      Sorry for the delay in replying…What are you using to plug the guitar into the iPad? The iRig guitar adaptor? If so, the adaptor allows you to plug your guitar in one end and your headphones (or speakers) in the other end. There’s also a lead that comes out of the adaptor and plugs into the iPad. This picture shows it: http://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/irig/ I don’t have experience with other types of guitar/iPad adaptors, but I would guess that they work in a similar way. Hope that helps! – Katie

  6. […] Wright 1. 2. 1. 2. GarageBand for iPad Tips | Midnight Music. While preparing for an all-day iPads in the Music Classroom workshop last month, I ended up […]

  7. […] THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT GARAGEBAND FOR IPAD […]

Leave A Comment

You might also like...

Introducing

The Midnight Music Community

An online community where music tech professional development, lesson ideas, and accountability come together.
Ultimate Free Music Tech Resource Guide Guide 2023/24

Download Now for FREE...

The Ultimate Music Tech Resources Guide for 2023-2024

Claim your copy of our annual guide to free music technology resources, designed especially for music teachers. Discover interactive music websites, software, productivity tools, and assessment resources you can use in your music classroom for free.

Follow Me on Social Media

PRIVACY POLICY

This is the Privacy Policy for the Midnight Music website located at www.midnightmusic.com (“Site”).

The Site is operated by Midnight Music Pty Ltd ABN 87 619 652 603 (“Midnight Music” or “Company” or “we” or “us”).

Midnight Music understands the importance of protecting your personal information and undertakes to adhere to this privacy policy at all times to ensure your personal information is effectively safeguarded.

Information you provide to us

The Site provides various places for users to provide information. We collect information that users provide by filling out forms on the Site, communicating with us via contact forms, responding to surveys, search queries on our search feature, providing comments or other feedback, providing information when ordering a product or service via the Site, and other circumstances where collecting personal information is reasonable and permitted by the Laws of the State of Victoria, Australia.

We use information you provide to us to deliver the requested product and/or service, to improve our overall performance, and to provide you with offers, promotions, and information.

Information we collect through automatic data collection technology

As you navigate through the Site, we may use automatic data collection technologies including Google Analytics to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns. This will generally include information about your location, your traffic pattern through our Site, and any communications between your computer and our Site. Among other things, we will collect data about the type of computer you use, your Internet connection, your IP address, your operating system, and your browser type.

The information we collect automatically is used for statistical data and will not include personal information. We use this data to improve our Site and our service offerings. To the extent that you voluntarily provide personal information to us, our systems will associate the automatically collected information with your personal information.

Use of cookies and pixels

Similar to other commercial websites, our Site utilises a standard technology called “cookies” and server logs to collect information about how our site is used. Information gathered through cookies and server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our site, and the websites visited just before and just after our own, as well as your IP address.

A cookie is a very small text document, which often includes an anonymous unique identifier. When you visit a website, that site’s computer asks your computer for permission to store this file in a part of your hard drive specifically designated for cookies. Each website can send its own cookie to your browser if your browser’s preferences allow it, but (to protect your privacy) your browser only permits a website to access the cookies it has already sent to you, not the cookies sent to you by other sites.

The Company reserves the right to use technological equivalents of cookies, including social media pixels. These pixels allow social media sites to track visitors to outside websites so as to tailor advertising messages users see while visiting that social media website. The Company reserves the right to use these pixels in compliance with the policies of the various social media sites.​

How we manage personal information

Midnight Music undertakes to take all commercially reasonable steps to ensure that all personal information collected by us is accurate, up-to-date, complete and stored securely. When your personal information is no longer required for the purposes which Midnight Music uses personal information, all commercially reasonable steps will be undertaken to securely destroy that information.

How your personal information will be used

We use personal information for purposes of presenting our Site and its contents to you, providing you with information, providing you with offers for products and services, providing you with information about your subscriptions and products, carrying out any contract between you and the Company, administering our business activities, providing customer service, and making available other items and services to our customers and prospective customers.
From time-to-time, we may use the information you provide to us to make you offers to purchase products and services provided by third parties in exchange for a commission to be paid to us by such third parties. Should you opt to take part in such promotions, the third parties will receive your information.

Disclosure of your information

Midnight Music considers personal information we collect about you to be confidential and will not disclose such information to third parties except in the following circumstances:

  • Where you have consented to your personal information being provided to a third party;
  • Where Midnight Music is required by law to disclose your information; and
  • Gaining access to your personal information held by Midnight Music

Except in circumstances where access to your personal information may be denied by the Privacy Act or other Law of the State of Victoria, Australia, your personal information will be provided to you upon request.

Visitors’ General Data Protection Regulation rights

If you are within the European Union, you are entitled to certain information and have certain rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). These include the following:

  • We will retain the any information you choose to provide to us until: (a) you ask us to delete the information; (b) we decide to cease using our existing data providers; or (c) the Company decides that the value in retaining the data is outweighed by the costs of retaining it.
  • You have the right to request access to your data that the Company stores and the rights to either rectify or erase your personal data.
  • You have the right to seek restrictions on the processing of your data.
  • You have the right to object to the processing of your data and the right to the portability of your data.
  • To the extent that you provided consent to the Company’s processing of your personal data, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based upon consent that occurred prior to your withdrawal of consent.
  • You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority that has jurisdiction over issues related to the General Data Protection Regulation.
  • We require only the information that is reasonably required to enter into a contract with you. We will not require you to provide consent for any unnecessary processing as a condition of entering into a contract with us.

Contact us

Should you have any queries in relation to the above or require further information regarding the Privacy Policy please contact us:

Midnight Music Pty Ltd
PO Box 219
Glen Waverley
Victoria 3150
AUSTRALIA

Email address: support@midnightmusic.com