When I graduated from college and moved to New York City, my family surprised me by chipping in and giving me a new Mac computer as a commencement gift. After much shrieking, jumping up and down and, of course, a few tears of happiness, my sister and I headed off to the Apple store in Soho and picked up my what was to quickly become my new favorite toy.
As soon as I got home, I unpacked my new desktop and searched in vain for the tangle of wires, plugs, and hook-ups that I knew so well from my time with a Dell. Realizing that Macs require nothing but a plug, keyboard, and mouse, I found myself up and running in no time. I spent the next few days discovering the different applications and programs that are inherently offered on Macs, and it wasn't long before I fell in love with Garage Band.
Garage Band is not what you might think - this is no group of angsting teens convening in their parent's garage to wail away on out-of-tune guitars and rickety drum sets. Garage Band is a top-notch, user-friendly music recording program available on Mac computers. Once learned, it can be a musician's best friend. I've been playing music and singing ever since I was a kid, and in fact throughout High School and College, I often composed songs for fun. I never had any way of recording these ideas, and until High School, lacked the music theory knowledge to write my songs on staff paper. All of this changed when I learned how to use Garage Band. I can now easily hook my keyboard up to my computer, and record songs, ideas and harmonies at will. It's a great way to keep stock of all your musical ideas - both the good and the bad!
The latest versions of Garage Band include sample songs for different genres of music, ways to approach songwriting through samples, loops, and various instruments, and lessons for both piano and guitar. You can even find lessons on how to play your favorite pop songs, with tutorials from the artists themselves! Other normal features of the program include direct instrument input, options for lots of different tracks, easy editing and playback, and ways to influence, vary, or even distort your original tracks.
Garage Band has revolutionized the public music scene, allowing novices and professionals alike to record their original works right from their own homes. Some bands have even used the program to record and produce albums to some public success. For example, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's self-titled premiere album was entirely recorded and mixed using Garage Band. Couple that initiative with self-marketing tools like Facebook and MySpace, and you've got a great platform for getting your music out to the public, at extremely low cost. The quality of Garage Band's music, while high, may not rival the sounds coming out of professional studios, but it's a great tool for the Average Joe, and I would recommend it to anyone.
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