As the leader and music arranger for an a cappella group, I found myself looking for options that could help me out in arranging songs without having to use a laptop. That way, my ideas would be available to me with just the tap of a finger on my phone.
Any artist can relate to finding a muse in the most random times of the day and that’s why all artists must have something in hand ready for when those sporadic and marvelous ideas hit you like a ton of bricks. You definitely need something to record them so you don’t forget. For a music arranger that owns an iPhone, iPod, or iPad, the Garage Band Application can help out in ways that you couldn’t have imagined.
GarageBand is a very useful tool when it comes to making arrangements on the go. If you’re an a cappella arranger, the only thing you’ll need apart from GarageBand is your voice and headphones with a microphone. The “Audio Recorder” option lets you record multiple tracks with different voices and different voice effects. You’ll be able to adjust the volume of every single track, set a tempo to a metronome, move tracks on a timeline to adjust each one’s timing, and finally mix them together when it’s ready to be exported.
Apart from the “Audio Recorder”, there are also various instruments to choose from if you want instrumentals added to the vocals such as the guitar (acoustic and electric), bass, strings (violin, cello, etc.), drums, keyboard, and world instruments. In addition, there are also “Live Loops” that can help with special beats from EDM, Hip Hop, Dubstep, RnB, House, Chill, Rock, Electro Funk, Chinese Traditional, and Chinese Modern music. Every set of instruments have their own special functions with the chords that you assign for your own song; furthermore, each instrument has an “Autoplay” button just in case you’re having problems deciding how your song should proceed with the chords assigned.
If you are someone that doesn’t know much about music, the Chord Analyser Application helps you figure out what kind of chord your notes are playing. In the free version of Chord Analyzer, there are the options of getting to know the chords you play with the guitar, the tenor banjo, and the keyboard. If you’re the kind of person that picks out three notes in the keyboard saying “These three match up well for a song”, Chord Analyser lets you know what kind of chord those three notes are a C# Major, an E 5, etc. This will help you out in choosing the right chords in GarageBand to let your instruments be played in the right way.
Be creative and don’t let your mind wander off to limitations when you can have Chord Analyser and GarageBand at your service. Your musical dreams are within reach!