HOW TO Start making music

1 Pick a genre

When you run GarageBand, you’ll be greeted by the Project window. Click on Project Templates. This enables you to choose the kind of music or project you intend to create. In this tutorial, we’re going to have some fun with Hip-Hop.

2 See the beats

Don’t worry, this is simpler than it looks. The big yellow strip to the right of Beat Machine (Anton) is a Drummer track, and if you select it with the mouse you can use the controls at the bottom to change what it plays.

3 Make some noise

If you click on the next track, Sweeping Arp, you should now see a blank grid in the lower section. ≈-click and choose Create Note to add a note. You can now move that note, expand it, or copy and paste it. Try experimenting.

4 Get creative

To repeat a section, hover the cursor over the top right of the track

– the coloured area – and the cursor changes to a looping arrow. Drag it to repeat. Here, we’ve looped our notes and copied them to the Deep Sub Bass track.

5 Add a loop

Click on the loop icon at the very top right to open the GarageBand loop library. Click a loop to hear it or drag it on to the tracks to add it to your project. Dragging to an area that doesn’t already have a track creates a new one.

6 Edit your audio

If the loop is too long, that’s not a problem. To trim a loop, move the mouse over the bottom right corner of the loop in the main window. The cursor should now change to a <]> shape. Drag to adjust the length.