A new ebook promises to help you help get you started with Apple Garageband.

Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand is the latest in Mac publisher Tidbits’ “Take Control” series of ebooks. These inexpensive books are designed to help Mac users get the most out of Mac OS X.

The latest in the series focuses on iLife Garageband. Seattle musician Jeff Tolbert’s step-by-step instructions guide beginning and intermediate users through using GarageBand’s built-in loops to create two songs, teaching you not only how to use GarageBand’s editing and mixing features but also how to be playful and creative while composing tunes that please the ear.

Tolbert covers how to plan a song, the six elements of a successful song, strategies for adding loops to a song, five goals to consider when mixing, and how to export your music to iTunes. The ebook also covers how to change track volume, pan your tracks, adjust equalization, and work with the Reverb effect. Linked-in audio lets you listen to examples while you read about them. Plus, it includes seven suggestions for solving performance problems.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Making Music with GarageBand Quick Start
• Configure GarageBand
• Make Your First Tune
• Make a Great Song
• Export Your Song
• Appendix A: Improving Performance
• Resources
• Glossary
• Reading and Printing Tips
• About This Ebook

Excerpt from the Introduction

“The purpose of this ebook is to show you how to create a song in GarageBand using the loops that ship with the product. You will learn tricks for customizing the built-in loops and ways to use mixing techniques and audio effects so that your songs will sound unique. Whether you’re new to GarageBand or have already played around with it, plenty of audio-related goodies await you within. I won’t, however, cover recording a guitar or vocals or setting up a MIDI keyboard; those topics could fill another ebook of this size.

I’m also passing along some of the musical knowledge I’ve amassed over the years, to help you create an interesting and effective composition. This information is oriented toward nonmusicians, so don’t worry if all you know about music is that a grand piano is bigger than a ukulele; I’ve presented the concepts in plain English. You don’t need to know what a diminished seventh chord is or how to sight-read an orchestral score to make a song that will impress your friends.”

Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand is available online at the Take Control site. It is $5, and a PDF sample of the book’s contents is available for free download.