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About This Lesson
In today’s lesson I’ll show you how I make guitar jam tracks using GarageBand, which is my DAW (digital audio workstation) of choice. Over the last few years, I’ve creaetd several dozen jam tracks to make practicing guitar more fun. This includes an audio version and a video version (made in Premiere Pro). No matter which tools you use, I’ll walk you through the process in real-time. If you have the urge to try this yourself, I encourage you to give it a try!
Part 1: How I Make Audio Jam Tracks
In this free tutorial, I’ll walk you through my process of using GarageBand (a free DAW includes on all Macs) to create an audio jam track. I’ll be using the song Dreams by The Cranberries in this example.
Part 2: How I Make Video Jam Tracks
This builds off Part 1, where I take the audio file I created and show how I make it into a video. This is an optional step, but the benefit is you get visuals showing you the chord progression at-a-glance, as well as highlights showing which chord is currently being played. I’m using the graphic design tool Figma and the video editing tool Premiere Pro for this step… but you can use any similar software apps you prefer (Canva, iMovie, etc).
Part 3: How to Change the BPM (Tempo) of a Jam Track
Lastly, I’ll show you how to change the tempo of an existing jam track. This is very easy to do, and quite handy if you wish to make different speeds to work through as you practice and improve. For example, in my lessons teaching Lead Guitar Improv Over Wagon Wheel or the George Miller song King of the Road you’ll find multiple jam tracks at different speeds.
My Dreams Jam Track
I plan on teaching the song Dreams by The Cranberries in an upcoming lesson. Below is the jam track I created in step 1 above. In my future Dreams lesson, I’ll demonstrate how you can use this track when learning that song. In fact, you could use it for anything: lead guitar, arpeggios, triads, creating your own melodies, and much more.
Related and Recommended
A few years back, I made this video showing how I make audio drum tracks using the iPad/iPhone version of GarageBand. This particular feature (the beat sequencer) is only available on the iPad and iPhone, and I love it for quick beat creation at any tempo I want.
Lastly, be sure to check out JamBox – which is the dedicated page on this website where all my video jam tracks are shown. Each track links out to the lessson(s) where its used, making it easy for you to dive deep into any specific tutorial if you want to put the jam track to use as I show.
Browse Related Lessons
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Coming soon is Jambox – which shows all the video jam tracks I've made. It's note quite ready for the spotlight, but check it out if you like!
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