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How to Make Drum Tracks Using GarageBand's Beat Sequencer

Lesson #442 • Jun 22, 2022

Video lesson

Editor’s notes

Hey there, my friends! Quick tutorial today where I show you how I’ve been creating the custom drum tracks used in some of my recent videos. This is in response to Song Notes member Byron, who asked about this after my latest video teaching Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding. In my playthrough for that song, you can hear a drum track in the background – which I created using GarageBand’s Beat Sequencer tool. While I have next to zero experience as a drummer, I’ve been able to figure out the process of creating such tracks in just seconds — which I’m excited to share with you in this video.

If you want to try this out yourself, you’ll need GarageBand for either the iPad or iPhone (here’s the download link). The great part is, GarageBand is free to download! The Beat Sequencer is just one of the many features included within GarageBand, which is an incredibly powerful tool for amateur musicians.



Some of My Lessons Backing Tracks…

Here’s just a few of the recent lessons I’ve made which include a backing track as an optional download to Song Notes members.


How to Browse All My Lessons with Backing Tracks…

Click here to see search results for backing track — which is a tag I’ve given to each lesson which has either a video or audio backing track (sometimes both). Audio backing tracks can typically be downloaded for off-line use, giving you a steady drum-beat to play over while practicing.


How to Browse My Lessons with Play-Along Covers…

Click here to see search results for play-along cover — which is a tag I’ve given to each lesson where I play through each section of a song. Sometimes the play-along cover is part of my main YouTube tutorial, and other time it’s a separate video embedded somewhere on the page.

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