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Here's a list of Lesson Plan Ideas to get you started thinking about all the powerful ways GarageBand might be used by music educators:
 * GARAGEBAND CAN BE PUT TO USE BY MUSIC EDUCATORS AND THEIR STUDENTS IN AN ALMOST ENDLESS VARIETY OF USEFUL WAYS!**


 * 1) Record solo or small/large ensemble rehearsal/performance (document performance, reflect/assess rehearsal, capture piano accompaniment, etc.).
 * 2) Create podcasts and vidcasts that incorporate spoken word, music, still picture (images, //PowerPoint// slides, etc.), video, and/or //Skype// interview audio. If time, demonstrate capturing //Skype// interview audio with //WireTap Pro// (do this in real time with someone else on //Skype// or near a phone).
 * 3) Waveform Editor: Prepare (record and process) sound clips for larger collage project, //PowerPoint//, website, blog, theatrical voice over, etc.
 * 4) Favorite Sounds Activity: take as little or as much time as desired to audition and choose “favorite” sounds from //GarageBand//’s softsynth collection. Ask students to share their favorite sound with class; discuss reactions. Optional: Have students prepare brief musical gesture (melodic, rhythmic, groove) to show off the patch.
 * 5) Use //GarageBand// as a MIDI sequencer to import/play existing Standard MIDI Files (SMFs) or to create your own, new SMFs.
 * 6) Demonstrate/discover various DSP effects and how they work (i.e. multiband EQ, reverb, compressor, etc.). Have students apply them to various genres of recorded music (CDs they bring in). Even cooler: Apply DSP effects to a prerecorded, common melody played by a live instrument, or to some/all the parts of a multi-track production.
 * 7) Making arrangements of existing tunes, especially Baroque or Classical keyboard music (song form, “New Clothes for Old Tunes,” “Extreme Makeover: Classical Music Edition,” SMF Import and Arrange, etc.
 * 8) Blues Improvisation and other jazz changes, solo choruses, etc. E-flat Blues for easy keyboard note set. Ahead of time, create a 12-bar blues //GarageBand// template with a solo track for student to improvise/record (or create/download an audio file with blues accompaniment).
 * 9) Examine waveform to analyze and demonstrate various concepts (legato, staccato, crescendo, etc.).
 * 10) Prepare dictation examples for aural theory course tutorials (local or online), playing them in with a softsynth sound (i.e. Grand Piano), a real instrument, or even voice. Posting these examples to a course blog, wiki, or website is easy (http://edublogs.org, for instance).
 * 11) Create Rehearsal Tracks: Download SMF from Silvus Woodshed, etc., import into //GarageBand//, set panning to isolate tracks and use as rehearsal/drill sequence (a la Music-Minus-One) by muting tracks. MIDI tracks allow for variable tempo. Use //Amazing Slow Downer// to compliment.
 * 12) Teach principles of song writing such as forms [verse/refrain (+bridge, intro, outro)], layering, 100% rule, etc.
 * 13) Use //GarageBand// to set/accompany a monophonic melody created with music notation software (or noteflight.com) and exported as a MIDI file.
 * 14) Use to introduce the concept of groove in pop/jazz music and have students create a 4-measure groove example that employs at least 4 layers and at least one of each of the following elements: MIDI loop, audio loop, and new MIDI-programmed material (sequenced). Optional: add an audio-recorded element.
 * 15) Cut, Copy, Split, Paste, Join. Have students start with a prepared //GarageBand// file containing music for a familiar folk tune (i.e. “Yankee Doodle,” etc.). First apply splits to divide the song into formal sections. Copy/Paste new sections to create an introduction, some repetition of the body of the song (a 2nd verse/refrain for instance), and an ending of some sort (“outro”). If time, or for added challenge add loops to enhance song.
 * 16) Record individuals (or small group/sectional lessons) for instrumental or vocal testing.
 * 17) Record lectures or verbal/aural quizzes for absent students.
 * 18) Hands-On Timbre (Similar to “Favorite Sounds” Activity). After discussing timbre, ask students to compare //GarageBand// patch groupings to conventional symphonic instruments groupings – Woodwind, Brass, Percussion, and Strings. Working in groups, have students re-orchestrate a common //( the same//) multi-track piece (short keyboard movement, hymn, folk or other song, etc.) with patches from one timbre grouping (brass, woodwinds, strings, percussion, synth/electronic, etc.). Play results for class and discuss. Extend the lesson by allowing students to copy, transpose, and assign new sounds to tracks to layer timbres, or apply DSP effects.
 * 19) LONG SCORING: Score a movie with //iMovie// (shoot video in //iMovie//, export as MPEG or MOV, drop into //GarageBand// to sync as you compose).
 * 20) SHORT SCORING: Create a theme song or cue to a real or fictional media product (school or network news theme, video game theme or cue, commercial for a product, etc.). This can be done with only a time requirement (30 seconds long with big “hit” at 22 seconds, followed by an exit pad), or with video (created in //iMovie//, provided by your school TV station, downloaded from www.archive.org or other sites, or even short excerpt “ripped” from DVD).
 * 21) Chord search for lead sheets. //GarageBand// can show students who don’t have formal theory understanding just what chords they are playing for original songs and arrangements they are creating. Choose the “Chord” view in the LCD, then play any chord on the keyboard and //GarageBand// will display the chord symbol for the notes played. //GarageBand// even handles “slash” notation (“F/G”)!
 * 22) Create dynamic, graphic formal analysis of pop songs and more. Bubbles can be named in //GarageBand//, or import images created from //PowerPoint// slides to signal formal articulations.
 * 23) Audio History Recording Project (Mike Fein, Haverford School District). Research artist or band; write, record, edit script, create slide images in //PowerPoint// to drop in podcast track, export as movie.
 * 24) Opera Alive! Project – Import opera scene music. Have students research, write, and record a simple voice-over explaining the action of the scene (employ “ducking” for voice-over lines). In podcast track, insert pictures found online from the opera scene, //OR// of students (teachers?) acting out (with costumes, props, etc.) what is taking place. Other pictures may be inserted as well to support contemporary or alternate setting for opera (i.e. picture of football stadium for Carmen bullfights, or Star Wars battle scene for Wagnerian Valkerie battle).
 * 25) Create soundscape to spoken word (poem, story, etc.).
 * 26) Folk Song Settings. Begin by recording folk song to click (real or software instrument), analyze for harmonic rhythm, then add various accompaniment topologies and instrumentations.
 * 27) Blues Composition that uses the “Transpose” feature to move loop bubbles to pitch levels corresponding to I7, IV7, and V7 chords (use +5 or -7 for IV and +7 or -5 for V). Use “blues poem” formula for vocal line.
 * 28) Creating remixes (and mash ups) of existing tunes by performing new drum tracks (fingers on QWERTY), dropping in loops, and layering excerpts of other recordings. OPTIONAL: Create a loop with an external “pattern sequencer” - anything from Reason to Groove Lab (go to http://www.artopod.se/groovelab/). Import loop as audio into //GarageBand//.
 * 29) Composing and sketching original music. Many composers use //GarageBand// as a first step since it’s quick and easy, but then move to a more sophisticated DAW later.
 * 30) Augment //Finale// (or //Sibelius//) realizations by allowing you to add missing or more realistic percussion (i.e. suspended cymbal roll), vocal/choral parts
 * 31) Use as a variable tempo, interesting and inspiring metronome. Especially young students in small group and sectional lessons will love repeating that phrase or song if you add loops and change them up.
 * 32) Digital Portfolio. Working with //iTunes// it’s easy to export and organize into playlists recordings of instrumental and vocal assessments and various creative projects (podcasts, compositions, improvisations). These can be burned to CD, saved as mp3 and posted on websites, wikis and blogs, and much more.
 * 33) Use //GarageBand// loop library as an additional resource with other Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) like //Digital Performer//, //Logic//, //ProTools//, etc.
 * 34) Using headphone splitter, several USB microphones, and Audio MIDI Setup’s “Aggregate Audio” (like a mixer for the OS), examine multi-microphone recording and use the technique to either record a duet (two instruments, voice and instrument, etc.) or a podcast in a host and guest format (or two co-hosts).
 * 35) Melody Jumble – Prepare a //GarageBand// file that includes a familiar melody sliced into 1- or 2-measure chunks whose order is mixed up. Have students rearrange “bubbles” to create an order they find pleasing, confirmed by playback. As time permits add percussion, bass, and other loops.
 * 36) Idle Chatter Revisited – Listen to a recording of all or part of electronic art music composer Paul Lansky’s //Idle Chatter//. Have students, or teams of students create a piece according to the same premise: 1. Record spoken word, 2. Slice and dice words to create percussion patterns (be sure to join bubbles into gestures), 3. Add //GarageBand// loops and synth pad pedal tones (may have to explain what these are) to augment, 4. The best projects will follow a determined form.
 * 37) Record a Drum Beat in Multiple Tracks (Mike Fein, Haverford School District). The idea is simple but incorporates music analysis, performance, recording, mixing, and more. Have students record separate tracks with one element of a notated drum beat (rock beat, etc.); make the difficulty match the ability of the students. If done by ear/rote, examine the notation view and discuss. Set volume levels and panning. Extend lesson in many ways including having students create their own rhythms for various elements of a drum beat, and/or augment with tonal (or other) loops.
 * 38) Find the Tempo. Drop clips of music of various tempi into //GB//’s Track Window, then use the tempo slider to match the metronome to the tempo of the clip.
 * 39) Use //Magic GarageBand// to discuss the relationship of instrumentation and groove elements to pop genres/styles.
 * 40) Sounds in Disguise! Use good microphone technique to record 1 or 2 “single event” sounds. These may be either a tonal instrument playing one tone, a single hit of a non-tonal percussion instrument, or some common “found sound” (music concrète). Apply //GarageBand’s// DSP effects to alter the sound beyond recognition. Share with class and explain what effects you used. OPTION 1: Distribute various pre-recorded sounds to students; allow them to work on their own and see if class can guess original sound when sharing. OPTION 2: Have entire class, or cooperative learning groups, work on the //same// sound. (Note: This is good introduction for electronic art music collage).
 * 41) Music, Movement, and Timbre. Students (likely in younger grades) are divided into groups to select a percussion loop and create a dance move that fits. When that loop/sound is played, their group moves accordingly. The teacher arranges the loops for playback so students really need to listen discerningly for their loop. Sometimes the loops are played one after the other, but at other times they are played simultaneously. Sometime NO loops sound (silence or a loop not matched to a group/movement), and sometimes ALL the loops sound! Catchy loops make for a fun, high-energy lesson.