Software instruments let you play and compose music with virtual instruments, like the keyboard, guitar, bass, strings, and more. Using the keyboard on your Mac to play the notes, you can incorporate a variety of musical sounds into songs to make them more expressive and meaningful.
Add a software instrument track. Click the Add Track button and choose Software Instrument, then click Create.
Use your Mac keyboard to play an instrument. Choose Window , Show Musical Typing. The keyboard map in the Musical Typing window shows which keys you can use to play musical notes and operate the various sound controls.
Turn on the metronome and count-in. Click the Count In button and the Metronome button so they’re both highlighted in purple.
Drag the playhead to the point in the project where you want to start recording.
Record. Click Record , and after the four-beat count-in, play a sequence of notes using your keyboard. Click Stop Recording when you’re done playing.
Explore ways that a variety of playing techniques can set the mood of a story. For example, play a software instrument with greater intensity to represent rising tension.
Using the Musical Typing keyboard, try playing and recording the melody from a short song or jingle.
For a more traditional instrument experience, you can connect a USB
or MIDI music keyboard to your computer to play and record the
software instruments built into GarageBand.
Share what you learned and help others discover the Apple Teacher Program.
A link to this page in the Apple Education Community has been copied to your clipboard.