Music Teacher - Tech column: GarageBand for iPad

It may have its quirks, but GarageBand's provision of a fully equipped music studio within an iPad convinces David Guinane of its value in the classroom

The drum sequencer is an invaluable tool for teaching rhythm and drum patterns but can only be found on GarageBand for iOS devices

I love GarageBand for iPad. Despite its faults, it still amazes me that students in my classes have their own personal studio; they can all multitrack, record and remix music as part of the ‘everyday’ curriculum.

Working intensely with GarageBand for iPad has given me an insight into its quirks, as well as how to make the most of the app when using it with your students. Here is a non-exhaustive list I’ve put together:

At the time of writing, I have been using iOS 18 on my devices for around three weeks. The school iPads, of course, didn’t update on Day 1 of the new iOS release (and they still haven’t). This caused no problems whatsoever, for about a week. The latest GarageBand update rendered my beautiful templates and sample projects, created on my own iPad, totally incompatible with the student iPads. This was annoying. It is best practice to create templates and sample projects on the same version of GarageBand that your students are using.