Name Your Song
Here's where you put in the name of the song, and also where you select where you want to store the session files. I recommend either your Documents folder or the GarageBand folder; however, anywhere you'll be able to remember is fine.Set The Tempo
Using GarageBand requires a simple knowledge of music theory. The first setting you'll need to input is the tempo of the song. You can go from very slow to very fast, but be careful - most of Apple's built-in sample library is functional between 80 and 120 BPM. That's a problem when you're wanting to add samples of different tempo to match work you're recording yourself. Fortunately, Apple offers many expansion packs for GarageBand with varying tempos and keys, as do many outside companies. If the included samples don't work for you, there's a lot of outside options.Set The Time Signature
Here, you'll set the time signature of your piece. The most common is 4/4, which is what most of the samples are locked in at. If you're having trouble making it work with your composition, consider a sample pack for expanded time signatures.Set The Key
Here's where GarageBand has a major fault. You're only able to input one key signature throughout the song, which is hard if you plan to change key halfway through. In the bundled version of GarageBand, most melodic samples are in the key of C Major, so this isn't an issue unless you're using an expansion pack.Now, let's look at our options for using sampled content.
