A picture may paint a thousand words, but complementing it with the right music can make it sing. In this activity, Steve's students created a soundtrack and learned how shaping its rhythm and harmony can inspire different emotions to better enhance the mood of a photo.
Steve first provided his students with an image of a scenic landscape.
Students were free to adjust the exposure, contrast, and saturation of the image to achieve their desired visual mood. Learn how to edit photos in Chapter 1 of the Everyone Can Create Photo guide.
Next, students selected a preset drummer personality in GarageBand that would best complement the mood of their edited photo. Learn how to create drumbeats using Drummer in Chapter 2 of the Everyone Can Create Music guide.
Having established the feel of the soundtrack with the drums, students then added a chord to strengthen the desired mood of their photo. Learn how to create a chord progression in Chapter 3 of the Everyone Can Create Music guide.
The drum sequence and chord tracks were then looped. Learn how to use loops in Chapter 4 of the Everyone Can Create Music guide.
Now students could start building an arrangement with other instruments, keeping in mind the mood they would like to inspire. Learn about layering different instruments to create an arrangement in Chapter 3 of the Everyone Can Create Music guide.
Once they were satisfied with their arrangement, they mixed it by adjusting its volume levels, panning, and reverb to create a soundtrack. Learn more about post-production in Chapter 5 of the Everyone Can Create Music guide.
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Finally, students exported their finished soundtrack with the photo they'd edited earlier as a video.
Traditional music education often only teaches students to perfect their musical performance. With GarageBand, a student doesn’t simply replicate a performance; they are actively crafting new music to create more emotive story‑telling. This takes their creativity to the next level.
