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Upset that you don’t have a MIDI keyboard, and want to take advantage of Garage Band’s MIDI capabilities? You’re in luck. Garage Band 2 offers two versions of a virtual keyboard. Under the Window menu, take a look at the Keyboard and Musical Typing options. Musical Typing allows you to use your computer keyboard as a basic piano keyboard to add-in notes. You can record and perform in real-time.
By using Musical Typing, you can even simulate the use of a sustain pedal, change the velocity (volume) of individual notes, and add MIDI effects such as pitch bend and modulation. This is a welcome and new feature to Garage Band 2.
Beyond MIDI (the interface), the type of files that sequencer programs create are also called MIDI. MIDI files are found on sites online, and on the Mac, play back well in the Quicktime Player. These files are not unlike the green tracks in Garage Band. They are small files that only contain information about the notes in the music; alone they contain no sound.
With GarageBand 2, you can add MIDI files to Garage Band. In fact, you can import them easily, and re-arrange the tracks to suit your own tastes. Please be aware that some MIDI files are protected by copyright, and not all MIDI files will import flawlessly.
I imported the theme from The Flintstones into Garage Band by dragging the .mid file into the window of a new Garage Band project. After a small delay, the window showed me all the tracks used to play back the theme. I can now change the instrumentation, their effects, the levels, and even pan. By using MIDI files in Garage Band, you can have some signficant fun learning about the world of arranging and audio mixing.
If you’re trying to learn how music notation works, try watching one of the tracks play as you look at the track editor in notation mode. It will help if you change the note resolution to a sixteenth-note. Garage Band’s notation engine approximates note values and I’ve found the sixteenth-note values work best for MIDI files.
If you don’t like a line, add to the composition yourself! You can combine your own playing, singing, or even add loops to MIDI files you import into Garage Band.
You’ve come a long way in learning about a rather amazing little program called Garage Band. It’s simple interface does offer a lot of power in a one-window interface.
If you have questions about Garage Band not answered through this tutorial, check out Apple’s Help for Garage Band (shortcut: Command-?).
Once you’ve succeeded with some compositions of your own, and you think you need some feedback, check out the following sites that support the Garage Band community and foster sharing of homemade songs with other Mac-using music enthusiasts.
I have created two composition lessons for students of Garage Band. The following are in PDF format and can be reproduced for classroom use.
© 2005 by John G. Hendron.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.