Creating a Drum Track

Drum Beat:

Objective: In this lesson you will create a rock drum beat using GarageBand. You will be required to input each instrument of the drum set as a separate track in your recording. While you could do this with a keyboard all in one track, I would like you to have some experience with multiple tracks layered together.

Music Vocabulary:

measure - a group of beats, often 2, 3, or 4 depending on the time signature

tempo - the speed or rate in beats per minute of the beat

The Rock Beat: ex. 1: hi-hat / ex. 2: adds snare / ex. 3 adds bass

Tasks:

1. Create a new document in GarageBand in 4/4 time with 3 tracks, all drum kits. In the control menu, turn on the metronome and count in.

2. On the first track you will enter ONLY THE HI-HAT part (black key nearest to f1 on your piano). Select Track 1 and hit the record button (or the R key), wait for the 4 beat count off and then record the given part. On the second track record the snare drum part (white key labeled d1). On the third track record the Bass drum (white key labeled c1).

3. Input four beats of each drum set part

4. Use the loop tool to extend each track to 8 measures.

*** STOP *** DON'T DO THIS YET!!!

5. Finally, shift-click the regions in all three tracks and join them together (command J).

6. What are the pros and cons of joining the tracks into one versus leaving them separate?

7. If this seemed easy, try changing the pattern to make it more complicated.