If you hit the spacebar your track will begin to play back and, if you're feeling adventurous, you can select your track and press Shift+Command+K to bring up a software keyboard and play along. Pan adjusts the balance of the instrument to the left and right of your mix and the volume control is self-explanatory.

Muting, as you would expect, silences a track, while solo mutes all other tracks. This is the same interface you'll find for all GarageBand music projects, with all of your instruments placed on their own specific track.Įach instrument has basic adjustments available, such as Mute and Solo controls as well as volume and pan settings. Once you're happy with the arrangement, hitting the Open in GarageBand button opens it as a GarageBand project, which should give you a feel for how things work. You're free to swap instruments in and out of the arrangement, adjust their volume and more, and you can even select your own instrument, which is a piano by default. Select from any of the genres and you'll see a full band of instruments placed in front of you on a virtual stage. For the total beginner, Magic GarageBand is probably the best place to start.