PE4_Garage Band

The tool I chose for my RILS is Garage Band. This is a tool that I think could be very useful to me as a music teacher. Beyond making podcasts for various assignments, I haven't used Garage Band very much. I decided it would be beneficial for me to go through the Garage Band '11 Essential Training on Lynda.com.
One thing that I thought was really neat and potentially very useful was learning how to add tracks of live instruments.
Here, he is working on various tracks with different instruments.  The drums and acoustic guitar are already in, and he is recording his own bass guitar part to go along with what is already there.

I think using something like this in the music classroom could be very engaging for students.  Building a song from Apple loops that are pre-recorded in Garage Band and ready to use, and then adding their own instrument could be a very fun exercise that really allows the students to be creative.

I also learned about many customization features Garage Band has.  For example, when recording electric guitar, there are many different types of amps and effects to choose from.  You can choose and amp, adjust all the knobs, add different stompboxes, adjust all of their knobs, and the list goes on.

There are so many different options, I think you could spend all day playing with all the options.









Since my RILS specifically deals with podcasts, I found the podcast section of the Lynda.com Training particularly interesting.  I have made podcasts for previous assignments, but only learned about the features in Garage Band by figuring it out on my own.  Here I learned more about how to adjust track volumes, and also how to add artwork, chapters, and links to websites.