Thinking Beyond Composition: Great for Ensemble Skills!

This was an amazing opportunity to allow my students an engaging learning experience through this creative application. I appreciated how user friendly the application was for all ages. My students were able to teach me a thing or two also. I believe that this applications allows students to demonstrate their creativity when it comes to music production. They were able to showcase their favorite music genres, demonstrate their musicianship, collaborate with peers and preserve in their final products. My students were also able to use the phone application version of it which is extremely helpful for when they were not present in class. I am excited to teach this class again!

This is a very powerful app. Students will need some preparation to use it, however. The tools in the app are quite engaging and powerful. Students will need a moment to explore and play before they can focus on a specific project. I advise the teacher to give this time as it will have students leaving class asking for more. Headphones are advised and students should be well managed before introducing the app.

I love Garageband when it is not used solely for working on music composition. While that is a good use of Garageband, it is capable of so much more. The presentation functions in Garageband allow you to choose from several different methods of exporting your finished piece. We upload to group Soundcloud account and then students embed their Soundcloud file on a presentational website. This project is a collaborative effort that students thoroughly enjoy and become very engaged in. Because of the high level of engagement, students learn a lot from trial and error as well as each other. Ideas flow more freely and more risks are taken when working with Garageband. Students can easily work outside their comfort zone and try things. Incorporating and integrating Garageband in lessons is easy. Most anything can also have an audio (or musical) component. But getting students to move past scripted and outlined lessons is a perfect way to instill and motivate creativity. Most support for functionality, whether on an iPad or desktop (and many students have the app on their phones), can be found with a well worded Google search. I have used Garageband with all level and types of learners. They all engage equally, so in a sense, Garageband can level the playing field in project work. I would recommend teachers have clear instructions and expectations for outcomes on your projects and certainly outline the required criteria of the project. But once that is all out of the way, watch your students get creative and take pride of their production.