Every lesson, in order
27 lessons across three levels. Work through the whole curriculum, or jump to what you need.
Wondering how it all fits together? See the full start-to-finish order of operations.
Beginner
Never opened GarageBand? Start here.Welcome to GarageBand: A Tour of the Interface
A calm, no-jargon walkthrough of what you're looking at the first time you open GarageBand — the control bar, the track area, and the panels you'll use constantly.
Getting Set Up: Preferences, Buffer Size, and Good Habits
The handful of settings worth checking before your first real project — audio preferences, buffer size explained simply, choosing the right template, and where your files actually live.
Creating Your First Project
Set your tempo and key, understand the metronome and count-in, and get comfortable with the transport controls before you record anything.
Understanding Tracks: Audio vs. Software Instrument vs. Drummer
The three track types in GarageBand explained plainly, and how to know which one you need before you hit record.
Recording Your First Audio Track
Set your input source, check your levels, and record a clean first take using your Mac's microphone or an external interface.
Recording Software Instruments & Musical Typing
Play and record a virtual instrument using a MIDI keyboard, or your computer keyboard with GarageBand's Musical Typing feature — no extra gear required.
Basic Editing: Trim, Split, and Move Regions
The handful of editing moves — trimming, splitting, moving, and looping regions — that you'll use in nearly every project you ever make.
Using Apple Loops to Build a Song Fast
Search, preview, and drag in royalty-free Apple Loops that automatically match your project's tempo and key — a fast way to sketch a full arrangement.
Getting Great Drums with the Drummer Track
Add a virtual session drummer, choose a style and kit, and shape the performance's intensity and complexity without programming a single hit by hand.
Basic Mixing: Volume, Panning, and Track Headers
The first mixing pass every project needs — balancing volume and stereo position between tracks — using nothing but the track headers.
Exporting and Sharing Your Finished Song
Bounce your finished project down to a single audio file — and choose the right format and settings for how you plan to use it.
Intermediate
You know your way around — now sharpen your craft.Mastering the Piano Roll Editor
Zoom into individual MIDI notes and edit pitch, timing, length, and velocity directly — the tool that turns a rough take into an exact performance.
Editing MIDI: Quantizing, Velocity, and Transposition
Automatic tools for tightening timing, balancing dynamics, and shifting pitch across a whole MIDI performance at once.
Smart Controls and Shaping Your Instrument Sound
Go beyond picking a preset — use Smart Controls to actually shape the tone, character, and movement of every instrument in your project.
Flex Time and Flex Pitch: Fixing Timing and Pitch
Reshape a recorded audio take after the fact — nudge timing without changing pitch, or correct pitch note by note, without re-recording anything.
Effects Basics: Reverb, Delay, and Compression
The three effects that do the most work in a mix — what each one actually does, and how to add them without overusing them.
Introduction to Automation
Record changes to volume, panning, and effects over time, so your mix evolves through a song instead of staying frozen at one setting.
Arranging a Song with Sections and Markers
Use arrangement markers to label verses, choruses, and bridges, then rearrange, duplicate, and reorder whole sections at once.
Vocal Production Basics: Comping and Tuning
Record multiple takes, combine the best sections into one final performance, and apply light, natural-sounding pitch correction.
Advanced
Mixing, mastering, and squeezing every drop out of GarageBand.Advanced Mixing: Buses, Sends, and Ducking
Route multiple tracks through shared buses, use sends for efficient shared reverb, and build volume ducking with automation.
Advanced Automation for Dynamic Mixes
Go beyond basic volume rides — layer automation across effects, filters, and multiple tracks to make a mix build, breathe, and release.
Mastering Your Track in GarageBand
The final polishing pass on a finished mix — EQ, compression, and limiting on the master bus — to get a track loud, balanced, and release-ready.
Advanced Vocal Production: Doubling and Harmonies
Add width, thickness, and richness to a lead vocal using doubling and layered harmonies, on top of the comping and tuning basics.
Using GarageBand's Built-In Music Theory Tools
Build confident chord progressions and melodies using GarageBand's scale-aware keyboard and chord tools, even without formal music training.
Workflow and Performance: Freezing Tracks and Buffer Size
Keep large projects running smoothly with track freezing, sensible buffer size settings, and habits that prevent your Mac from struggling under a big session.
Exporting Stems and Moving to Logic Pro
Export individual track stems for outside collaborators or mixing engineers, and understand what happens when a GarageBand project moves to Logic Pro.
Sound Design with GarageBand's Synths and Sampler
Move past presets and build genuinely original sounds using GarageBand's built-in synthesizers and the Sampler instrument.