How to Lay down a melody

Get started

Create a new track, swipe to the world pane and tap Guzheng. This Chinese zither can be played by tapping or strumming strings. To add tremolo (rapid repeating notes), hold the button at the foot of the screen.

Set up Autoplay

You can compose a melody by tapping the strings, but smart instruments make things easier. Tap Chords and you can restrict notes to specific chords. Or use Autoplay to kick off a melody that’s always in time and in tune.

Learn your chords

Set Autoplay to 4. We’ll use the chord progression Em/Am/G/Dm, playing each for two bars. Tap the Go to Beginning button and press Play; tap Em when the playhead loops to 1. Switch to the next chord every two bars.

Record your loop

Once you’re feeling confident, tap Go to Beginning and Record. As GarageBand counts in, tap Em to cue up that chord. Once the eight bars have been recorded, GarageBand will loop them. If you make a mistake, try again.

Play the erhu

Create a new track and choose Erhu, a two-stringed bow instrument with a distinct, clean sound that’s great for melodies. Tap and slide the strings to play, and use the slider to adjust the amount of vibrato.

Add live effects

The erhu also offers effects buttons for grace notes, trills, and a “horse” noise. Again, composing a melody isn’t simple, so feel free to use Autoplay (set to 1 sounds good) and record the same chords used in step 3.