Compose in Garage Band from Your Mac’s Keyboard

Picture this: You’re on a cross-country flight. Ack! Six hours on a plane. Do you want to watch the in-flight movie on those awful little screens (ugh!) or do something creative? One of the coolest features in Garage Band is the ability to compose using your Mac laptop’s keyboard. In our scenario, you whip open your laptop and fire up Garage Band. From the Window menu, choose Musical Typing to open its window, which displays exactly which Mac keyboard keys correspond to specific notes. Once you get the hang of it, you can easily use your laptop keyboard to audition software instruments or even record performances, which you can later polish up with a bit of editing. You can play melody lines or even chords and by using the Z and X keys, it’s easy to change octaves. The C and V keys control velocity, while numeric keys can provide pitchbend and modulation. Try it! Before you know it, you’ll be placing your seat in its upright position, ready for landing!