GarageBand: Incredible Music Technology for Schools
Author: Rick Phelan
Published: 04.10.13
There are moments when you look at technology and say, “Cool!” or “Awesome!” There are other times (less frequent, but more memorable) when you say, “WOW, THIS IS INCREDIBLE!” I had one of those moments preparing for SCOE’s 2013 iPad Symposium.
Dave Chosa, one of our presenters, was testing out his equipment for an ‘iPad band.’ He was working with four iPads. Each one was using the app ‘GarageBand.’ GarageBand allows you to play and record music like a real band using iOS devices. The devices can be set to sync to the same key and tempo, so everyone sounds great together.
Dave added wires to each iPad headphone jack and connected them to a sound mixer. The sound mixer allows each iPad’s sound output to be managed. Dave then showed me how you can hook up an electric guitar and keyboard to the mixer.
With this setup complete, a couple of Dave’s friends came into the room. Each person chose either a real instrument or an instrument from GarageBand: drums, keyboards, or guitar. We then had a short and fun jam session mixing the sounds. It was AMAZING!
Creativity with GarageBand opens doors new doors for schools with music. Here’s a short video of an iPad band at a school in Australia. You can get a sense of the power and value of music in schools from it:
Blog: Technology for Learners
